Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday asked artists and filmmakers to unequivocally declare their support for his country during a live video address at the opening of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.
Referring to the Berlin Wall which divided the German capital from 1961 to 1989 into the capitalist west and communist east, Zelenskyy said that now Russia, which attacked Ukraine almost one year ago, is building a new — figurative — wall in his country.
"This is a wall between freedom and slavery," Zelenskyy said adding that the art world cannot remain indifferent because amid silence the "voice of evil only becomes louder and more convincing."
Zelenskyy, a former comedian and actor, features prominently in Sean Penn's film about the war in Ukraine, "Superpower," which will have its world premiere at the Berlinale.
Before the opening ceremony, U.S. actress Anne Hathaway lauded the Ukrainian president as a "hero of our time" and thanked the festival for inviting him via video link, German news agency dpa reported.
Germany's minister of culture also stressed the importance of culture in times of war and crisis. "Whoever makes films and whoever shows films in dark times resists bondage," Claudia Roth said.
This year's film festival, which runs until Feb. 26, will see 18 films compete for the Golden and the Silver Bear awards. The winners will be chosen by a jury headed by American actor, screenwriter and director Kristen Stewart.
The festival was set to open with the premiere of Rebecca Miller's "She Came to Me," starring Hathaway, Marisa Tomei and Peter Dinklage.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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