Wim Wenders clarifies film and politics remarks

Wim Wenders said at the Venice Film Festival that filmmakers should not be seen as staying out of politics, clarifying remarks that caused an outcry at the Berlin film festival earlier this year.

The German director, who is in Venice to present a new film about Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, said he had been misunderstood.

Wenders, the director of "Paris, Texas", had served as head of the jury at the Berlin film festival in February. Asked then about Germany's support for Israel during the Gaza war, he told reporters that filmmakers "cannot really enter the field of politics".

Asked in Venice whether he had reconsidered, Wenders said filmmakers were "the opposite of politicians" and worked with empathy. He said he hoped he would not be quoted as saying filmmakers had to stay out of politics, adding: "We are the antidote."

The place of politics in film has been a recurring issue at European film festivals during the war in Gaza. At Venice's opening press conference, jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal said movies are "fundamentally, undeniably political".