‘O.K.’: The scandal that almost ended the Berlin Film Festival
Considered one of the ‘Big Three’ European film festivals alongside Cannes and Venice, the Berlin Film Festival, affectionately known as the Berlinale, is an extraordinary event on every cinephile’s calendar. Throw Sundance and Toronto into the mix, and Berlin is also part of the ‘Big Five’, the simply must-attend global film competitions.
Taking place in the German capital with around 20 films competing with one another for the highly coveted Golden and Silver Bear awards as per the agreement of a well-admired jury, Berlin offers some of the best cinematic offerings of the previous years and has seen several excellent works take home its widely desired prizes.
The 20th iteration of the Berlinale, though, was one marred in controversy and was, in fact, cut short. The controversy arose as a result of Michael Verhoeven’s 1970 film O.K., which focuses on a four-man US infantry team who captured a young Vietnamese girl whilst on patrol and proceeded to torture and kill her. One of the soldiers refuses to take part, and when his report of the incident is rebuffed by his superior, he begins to fear for his life.
The jury at Berlin was then headed by A Place in the Sun and Giant director George Stevens, who oversaw a 7-2 vote in favour of removing O.K. from the festival. He cited a FIAPF guideline that read, “All film festivals should contribute to better understanding between nations,” and further criticised the film’s gang rape scene.
Verhoeven, though, defended his film, stating, “I have not made an anti-American film. If I were an American, I would even say my film is pro‐American. The biggest part of the American people today is against the war in Vietnam.” This sentiment was reiterated by jury member Dusan Makavejev, who offered his support to Verhoeven and producer Rob Houwer.
Several other directors who had films at Berlin that year threatened to withdraw their entries, claiming that the jury was censoring Verhoeven. In turn, the jury itself disbanded, no awards were given out, and the festival itself was brought to an abrupt close, an event that very nearly threw the future of the festival into jeopardy.
There was unclarity as to whether the Berlinale would return in 1971, but following the creation of a new International Forum for New Cinema, the next iteration went ahead, leading to a Golden Bear award for Vittorio De Sica’s film Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini, awarded by a jury led by Bjorn Rasmussen.
Still, Verhoeven’s O.K. serves as a piece of the Berlin Film Festival’s history, a controversial work of cinema that very nearly brought the German celebration of film to its knees. It was also entered as West Germany’s official submission to the 1971 Academy Awards for ‘Best Foreign Film’ but was not nominated.
Check out the film below.
