A German INTERVIEW of Marcus Vetter on War
If you look back today: What has become of Angela Merkel’s statement “We can do this”? Has this vision been fulfilled or has it fractured?
Unfortunately, in my view, today this vision lies completely in ruins. It was the last stand of a truly humanistic approach, one that deeply divided Germany. Those who viewed the statement critically were often unfairly labeled as “right-wing” by those who applauded it. But a societal challenge of such magnitude can only be mastered together, because the truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. Both sides had a point, and should have approached the motto “We can do this” with much more prudence and solidarity. Today, we are faced with a social landscape in shambles. A large part of society supports an unprecedented rearmament of Europe. Those who warn against it are often silenced. War rhetoric is now coming from parties that once had a pacifist orientation. The world is upside down and hardly recognizable anymore.
In your films you often talk about reconciliation, identity, and social change. What stories should be told today to rethink integration and social cohesion?
We should tell the same kinds of stories. Stories that show the cycle of violence can be broken. On an individual level, people are still open to such stories and can still be moved by them. At the same time, they are influenced by seemingly convincing arguments – for example, that a Russian war of aggression can only be decided on the battlefield and that one can only respond to it with strength. Other opinions are no longer truly allowed in the media. In my view, this is fundamentally wrong. War itself is the greatest war crime, as Ben Ferencz – once the youngest prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials – put it. And he was right. In war, there is no morality, no humanity. Truth is the first casualty of any war. Through propaganda slogans we are conditioned to believe that strength is the only answer, because otherwise the enemy will overrun us.
When Hermann Göring was asked in Nuremberg how they had managed to unite all of Germany for a war of aggression, he said: “Of course, the people don’t want war… But… the people can always be driven to the bidding of the leaders. That’s easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for endangering the country. It works the same in every country.”
It is very hard for me to endure the current developments. We are ready to take increasingly extreme positions. Some want to raze Gaza to the ground and root out evil entirely, others place all the blame solely on Israel and are just as extreme in their rhetoric. There are only a few left who are willing to build bridges.
That is why I have re-edited a trilogy of films I shot in Palestine and Israel between 2008 and 2012, and expanded it with a fourth film about the International Criminal Court. This last one – WAR AND JUSTICE – is a profoundly pacifist film. When people see it, they are often willing to rethink their stance on war.
THE HEART OF JENIN tells the story of Palestinian father Ismael Khatib from Jenin, whose son was killed by Israeli soldiers and who, despite his deep grief, decided to donate his son’s organs to Israeli children as a gesture of peace.
CINEMA JENIN – THE STORY OF A DREAM tells how hundreds of volunteers from all over the world came to Jenin to join Ismael Khatib – from The Heart of Jenin – in restoring an old cinema that had been closed during the First Intifada. Cinema Jenin opened in the summer of 2011 and was operated as a cinema for 5 years before being demolished in December 2016 and replaced by a shopping mall.
AFTER THE SILENCE tells the story of Israeli Yael Armanet, who lost her husband in a suicide bombing carried out by a Palestinian from Jenin. Inspired by Ismael Khatib’s gesture, she sets out to visit the family of the attacker in Jenin to find answers to what happened. The film was made possible and co-produced by the Palestinian cinema Cinema Jenin.
