Kleber Mendonça Filho calls out Wim Wenders for saying politics has no place in movies: “I was a little surprised”
As a director of both fiction and documentary, Wim Wenders‘ emotional approach to storytelling has captivated generations of audiences throughout his career.
Unfortunately, he is only human, and recently, fans of the German icon were left scratching their heads when he made some very disappointing statements about how filmmakers should “stay out of politics” at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival.
“Movies can change the world…not in a political way,” he said, “No movie has really changed any politician’s idea, but…we can change the idea that people have of how they should live”, in response to a question about the current genocide in Gaza, in which the German government has shown support for Israel.
At a Q&A event for his Oscar-nominated film The Secret Agent in London, director Kleber Mendonça Filho was asked about Wenders’ comments and his own views on politics in film, and the Brazilian did not hold back, making his own stance on the matter very clear.
“I was just a little surprised when I saw the images of Mr Wenders, who I admire very much,” he said, “Politics is part of our lives… I think we should make our position very clear. In my case, I have been vocal about the genocide in Gaza, and I do not have a problem in stating that.”
Mendonça Filho is a particularly interesting candidate to answer this question, as not only did he sign an open letter condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, he’s been active on a number of issues in his home country, being a vocal critic of Jair Bolsonaro, the former President of Brazil, and his right-wing government. His film Bacurau was prevented from being submitted to the Oscars during this regime, which ended in 2023, and he spoke about his former adversary at the Q&A, reminding the audience that Bolsonaro was arrested in 2025, which received a huge cheer.
Not only does Wenders’ statement come across as cowardly in the modern climate, but it also makes no sense, for Mendonça Filho’s comments about politics being “part of our lives” are bang on the money.
People who want to keep politics out of anything, especially art, don’t seem to understand that everything is politics, with either an upper or lower case p. Just look at Wenders’ own back catalogue, where his 1983 film Wings of Desire is massively informed by the division of Berlin, proving that politics affects everyone’s lives every single day, and trying to avoid it in any walk of life is a fool’s errand.
Between Mendonça Filho’s rebuttal and Arundhati Roy’s boycotting the festival entirely, it seems as if Wenders’ comments have been received about as well as a cow pat in an elevator. Film (and art in general) should always be used as a lens to view the world around us, and anyone who doesn’t believe that simply doesn’t understand the medium.
