The Cottbus film festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals of East European Cinema worldwide. In an interview, artistic director Bernd Buder outlines the responsible role of film festivals, especially in times of a changing political climate, and offers insights into his curatorial work today defined by the ongoing war: „As a festival, we always say we don’t just celebrate cinema, but cinema is also an instrument for us to analyze and reflect on social moods. But (regarding russian cinema) I don’t think that would be understood this year. At the moment we think it is important to keep contact with oppositional filmmakers in Russia, to keep a dialogue, because Russia will continue to exist … and at some point there will come a phase where the dialogue could normalize again and then it is important to keep contact, to support those who make films that deal critically with the official propaganda. … But smart people are leaving Russia in droves now. … We used to have a Russian Day in our program, when Russian cinema could still be celebrated. In the meantime, one would have to say cynically … Exile-Russian Day. „
The whole interview of Jakob Bauer and Bernd Buder on rbb 24 can be found in German languagehere: here
