Human Rights Film Festival opens in Berlin

The Human Rights Film Festival in Berlin started with a documentary about women in resistance against the government in Hungary. The opening of the seventh edition in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg was attended by, among others, the Turkish journalist and this year’s patron Can Dündar. Following the opening film “Democracy Noir,” a question and answer session with the American director Connie Field was planned.

The program of the Human Rights Film Festival includes 25 documentaries “on the most pressing human rights issues of our time” until its conclusion on Saturday (October 12). The focus is on productions that deal with the challenges to democracy, freedom of the press and freedom of expression, it said.

Premiere for film by Can Dündar

For example, the cinema premiere of Dündar’s documentary “Guardians of Truth: Julian Assange and the Dark Secrets of War”, which deals with the fight for press freedom in the case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, will be shown. Assange was unexpectedly released at the end of June after 14 years of legal tug-of-war and returned to Australia.

According to the organizer, patron Dündar emphasized the power of films in front of around 450 guests: “The power of documentaries lies in bringing the truth to light. That’s why it’s so important today to have independent film directors, producers and festivals.”

Dündar himself worked for television channels and newspapers in Turkey and wrote a number of books. Until 2016, he was editor-in-chief of the anti-government newspaper “Cumhuriyet”. He was charged several times in Turkey and sentenced to a total of 27 years in prison, among other things, on charges of supporting terrorism. He has been living in exile in Germany since 2016.