Concerned that right wings are winning all over world: Grlic

Croatian filmmaker Rajko Grlic says the way right-wingers are taking over politics across the world is worrying.
"I think that we are on the edge of something quite unpleasant. In Europe, with all those people coming from the east, unhappy people trying to find a way to survive, Europe is becoming increasingly intolerant. There is intolerance all over the world now," Grlic told PTI.
"They don't want to take them in. They want to throw them out. They forget that every few centuries some nations face some troubles. Jews in the Second World War, now Syrians," he added.
Grlic, director of films like "Bravo Maestro", "Three for Happiness" and "The Border Post", says the formula which is working today in politics is that of hatred where people are trying to "close the society."

"Some big European countries owned half of the world, including India, and now they are so surprised that people from other countries are coming there. They are trying to close their society.
"The right wings are winning the game all over the world because they are saying 'throw them out, throw the foreigners'. Now, something similar will start to happen in America."

The movie tells the story of four people who live in the
same apartment building in downtown Zagreb, but are wary of each other because they don't share the same ethnic and religious backgrounds or sexual preferences.
Grlic says it is an extremely topical film which talks about how people have started to hate each other due to several reasons.

When the film was screened in America, Grlic quipped with the audience that the movie is "coming from your future" but noted that once the pandora box of intolerance is opened, it'll lead to nothing but war.
"The other day I had a premiere in America and said to them 'this film is coming from your future'... When you open the Pandora box of intolerant, it's so vast, it's almost impossible to put things back to normal.
"The politicians are playing this dangerous games now. You can learn from history, When politicians start to use this heavy nationalist card, intolerance card, very often the story ends with war. The level of intolerance in one moment somewhere needs to come out."

As a director, then, Grlic says he is "worried" with the things happening around him and can only hope that cinema acts as a catalyst to bring about a change in people.
"I am worried. My country is passing through hardships every 30-40 years as a result of intolerance. Some politicians realise that using intolerance is an easy way to get votes.
"Films can remind them of the world, can't change it. They can ask questions, not give answers. We are curious people, telling important stories, trying to wake you up. Then it's about how you go out of the theatre and can make some changes.

"Films are just reaching out to you emotionally, hoping that you can do something with yourselves. It's not that films will change your lives directly. But they are extremely strong, powerful on a very emotional level.