The China Mail - Lights, camera, resistance. Trump looms over anxious film industry

At the Berlin film festival this week, the radical changes unfolding in the United States and on the world stage loomed over every discussion and led many films screening there to be viewed through a new political lens.

The latest movie from acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon Ho took on a different hue in light of current events, with the space-loving billionaire at the heart of the satire appearing a mix of Trump and Elon Musk.

"Dreams", a film by Mexican director Michel Franco starring Jessica Chastain, tackled immigration and the story of an undocumented Mexican ballet dancer who crosses into the United States to be with his wealthy lover.

The story is "incredibly political, (partly) because of what's happening right now... not just the United States, all over the world", Chastain told reporters.

The question for filmmakers, studios and actors is whether they openly push back against Trump's "America First" nationalism, either through their on-screen work or public statements.

"I have no problem naming Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the entire Republican Party and condemning them for what's occurring right now," independent American director Todd Haynes, who is chairing the Berlin jury, told AFP.

"It is an appalling moment that we're in right now that will take every bit of energy to resist and revert back to a system that, flawed as it is, is something that we've taken for granted as Americans," the 64-year-old added.

- 'Escapism' -

Others were more coy.

When asked about the rise of far-right political parties, superstar Timothee Chalamet, in Berlin for the German premiere of his Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown", did not name Trump, but warned about "saviour" or "cult-like" figures.

A moderator intervened to shift the question onto the film and away from "personal politics".

British actor Robert Pattinson avoided a question about Trump, while Bong denied being inspired by the New York tycoon for his billionaire-politician character, saying he was thinking of dictators from the past.

Asked whether directors should take on more political themes, Oscar-nominated American director Richard Linklater said that "movies particularly have always been escapism".

His latest, "Blue Moon", is set in 1943 and includes an on-screen discussion of how audiences want distraction from the horrors of World War II.

British A-lister Benedict Cumberbatch said that cinema reflected the "collective concerns" of a particular moment in history, but that storytellers needed to be wary of making clunky statements.

"As an artist, I think you're dead in the water if you try to go out and proselytise or be didactic," he told reporters.

- 'Yielding' -

It remains to be seen how much Trump will pressure Hollywood studios to fall into line with his agenda against immigration, trans rights or racial and gender diversity programmes, for instance.

Earlier this month, he replaced the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a Washington cultural institution, and posted online that he would usher in a "GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture".

One of his objectives was to ensure there was no more "ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA".

Last week, major Hollywood studio Disney -- which Trump has derided as "woke" in the past -- followed the lead of other major US corporations by dropping diversity targets as a "performance factor".

Oscar-nominated "The Apprentice", an unflattering portrayal of Trump in his early years as real estate developer, struggled to find American cinema distribution last year and is still without a US streaming deal.

Other issues for Hollywood include whether to continue to film overseas -- many movies are shot in Mexico for cost reasons -- at a time when Trump is pressuring US companies to base their activities at home.

"We're already seeing unfortunately, like not necessarily in Hollywood, but in many other places that deal with massive corporate power, already a yielding to this new administration that is just shocking," Haynes told AFP.

"When people say 'oh, they're just playing the long game', that's when you find yourself becoming contaminated by the culture that you're in and losing your own ability to stand up," he continued.

Y.Parker--ThChM