At this year’s Berlin Film Festival, politics and protests, not cinema and celebrities, have gotten top billing. The activist uproar, whether its protesting environmentalists, demonstrations on the rights of women, or shows of solidarity with the embattled people of Ukraine, has created a media echo that has often overpowered what has been happening on screen. Thursday’s opening night red carpet so no fewer than three demonstrations. Holy Spider star Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, together with two German actresses, The Empress star Melika Foroutan and Jasmin Tabatabai (Bandits, The Baader Meinhof Complex), joined activists to unveil a banner reading “Women Life Freedom,” the slogan of the anti-government, pro-women’s rights protests that have rocked since last September.
