Meryl Streep - The Female Lead (✗)

Here’s How The Media Stitched Up Meryl Streep Over Her “We’re All Africans” Statement

Question No. 1 (Video: Starting at 15:30):

For Meryl Streep. Berlinale is a festival committed to political issues and human rights, which is great. And now I’m especially happy that with you the jury has a president which has given more and more prove to be committed to the human rights of women.

So my question is which are the issues that - of human rights of women or violence against women worldwide - which you think that should be addressed in the production and the promotional films and which are currently the issues that your are especially worried about or committed to?

Answer No. 1 from Meryl Streep (Video: Starting at 16:10):

Well, I’m very committed to equality and inclusion of people of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions. There should be inclusion and this jury is evidence that at least women are included and in fact dominate this jury. And that’s an unusual situation in bodies of people who make decisions. So I think that the Berlinale is ahead of the game.

Question No. 2 (Video: Starting at 27:30):

I would like to welcome you. I’m from Cairo, Egypt and it’s quite an honor to be with you here. And Meryl Streep your movie ‘Ricki and the Flash’ was shown at the opening of the Cairo Film Festival in November. You are a beloved iconic star back home and this is an open invitation for you and all of the jury members to come to Egypt.

My question is the following. There is the film that is representing Tunisia, the Arab world and Africa in the main competition. How do you see this part of the world and is it easy for you to understand that culture and are you following any of the Arab movies by any means? Thank you.

Answer No. 2 from Meryl Streep (Video: Starting at 28:16):

Yes, in fact I’ve just seen a film called 'Theeb’ which I loved. And I saw 'Timbuktu’ recently and I saw - there is another one but my mind is Swiss cheese. I don’t know very much about, honestly, about the Middle East and yet I have played a lot of different people, from a lot of different cultures. And the thing that I notice, is that we are all, I mean, there is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture. And after all, we are all from Africa originally. You know, we are all Berliners, we are all Africans really. So I’m… I think we… Look we have a critic on our jury, we have a director on our jury, we have actors on our jury, we have a photographer, cinematographer. People will be looking at different things in these films. But we are human beings and we are… A film is an emotional experience. So it’s a way that we are going to make these decisions based on what our head wants to say, but we are first attacked at the heart. So that’s an interesting process. I’m so looking forward to it.