Berlin Interrupted: Gaza Tumult, Right-Wing Pols, Navalny
My dispatch from the Berlinale as film's communal power is torn asunder by politics, and a 'Tiny House' to talk about the Mideast war spawns side-eye
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Fake eviction notices rained down on the buyers and sellers of the European Film Market — the agitprop seeking to make real the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. A boombox blared Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” as workers at the local CinemaxX theater rallied for better pay. Taxi drivers staged a film festival inside a cab in their latest protest against Uber. At this year’s Berlin Film Festival, which kicked off Feb. 15 and runs through Feb. 25, you couldn’t turn a corner without running into some kind of protest. Pro-Palestine activists were a mainstay of the festival strip, and the Silicon Valley ride-hailing giant found itself ensnared in controversy thanks to its festival sponsorship.