Berlin Film Festival: Actors & Festival Head Tricia Tuttle Hold Photos Of Israeli Hostage & Actor David Cunio On Opening Night Red Carpet

The opening night of the Berlin Film Festival is only just getting underway and political and humanitarian sentiment is already to the fore with multiple demonstrations on the red carpet and nearby.

Multiple German actors were accompanied on the red carpet by festival head Tricia Tuttle in holding up a photo of Israeli actor David Cunio, who is among hostages being held by Hamas. Among the actors holding the photo were Christian Berkel, Andrea Sawatzki, and Ulrich Matthes.

Cunio is the subject of Tom Shoval’s Berlin Film festival feature A Letter To David. There was a separate rally earlier in the day in festival venue Potsdamer Platz in support of Cunio and his brother Ariel, who is also being held captive.

Earlier in the evening, multiple protestors briefly took to the red carpet before opening film Das Licht (The Light) wearing masks and raising hands daubed in what seemed to be red paint. At least one was wearing a shirt with the slogan #genuggeschwiegen, which translates as “enough silence”, and is the name of a local campaign against abuse in the German film, TV, streaming and theater industries.

Supported by dozens of filmmakers, the campaign is committed to “ensuring that those affected raise their voices, sensitize the public and initiate political reforms to prevent structural abuse”.

The Berlin Film Festival is often a political affair but last year’s edition was even more so than usual. The festival ended in a media storm when Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham used his victory speech to criticize the Israeli government, something that sparked outcry among some local politicians and led to Abraham receiving death threats.

This year, under new leadership, there has been hope that the focus will return more squarely to the films. But with emotive elections coming in Germany next week, a febrile atmosphere in the U.S. under Donald Trump, and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, political shadows seem inevitable. Germany today also had to contend with another suspected terror attack when a car ploughed into bystanders in Munich.

Jury head Todd Haynes was asked about new President Donald Trump and far-right politics earlier in the day.