On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Lux Prize in the EP in Brussels,&nbsp;Ken LOACH, British Director, Winner of the Palme d'Or, expresses himself and exchange views&nbsp;on "What role for European cinema in tomorrow's Europe" at the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) with Silvia COSTA (S&amp;D, IT), Ken LOACH, Film Director, and Doris PACK, Former MEP.

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

Committee on Culture and Education

COSTA, Silvia (S&D, IT)

LUX Cinema Prize 2016 (T)

LOACH, Ken (UK)

PACK, Doris (EPP, DE)

10th Anniversary of the Lux Prize - "What role for European cinema in tomorrow's Europe": keynote address by Ken LOACH, British Director, Winner of the Palme d'Or and extracts from the exchange of views

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Silvia COSTA (S&amp;D, IT), Chair CULT Committee, First I just want to say a word for the death of a big protagonist of European cinema, the polish film director Andrzej Wajda, who died today aged 90.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Silvia COSTA (S&amp;D, IT), The Lux Prize is the symbol of the attention that the EP wanted to devote to the richness of the European cultures, its sensibilities and creative languages.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Silvia COSTA (S&amp;D, IT), Many independent young authors and directors had the possibility to get known and show their productions in other countries than their own, participating in the international scene and earning recognition outside the European space.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ken Loach, Film Director, I think the Lux Prize is very well entitled. Light is fundamental to cinema. Films should clarify and shed light on maybe stories and characters and tell us things, illuminate public discourse.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ken Loach, Film Director, The values of the enlightenment are now under challenge, as we know, and the prioritisation of reason as opposed to blind faith is something that we should all cherish.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ken Loach, Film Director, The great glory of European film is its diversity, it's extraordinary rich in cinema traditions. Language is our identity, we have to defend that and not link everything together as a Euroblob.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ken Loach, Film Director, The myth that people talked to me about is that Britain voted to leave Europe because the working class are racist. Nothing is further from the truth.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ken Loach, Film Director, The majority that took us out of Europe is the right wing, so let there be no doubt about that. But the left had a dilemma and it&rsquo;s this: Do you remain in an organisation which is right-wing, based on corporate power or do you leave, anot not only leave those in the European Union who would fight alongside with it, but also face a government in Britain that was further to the right that any European Union group?

SOUNDBITE (English), Ken Loach, Film Director, The level of the debate was at infantile level. But the serious debate, the what kind of Europe do we want? How can we make a Europe and a world eventually where people live alongside each other in dignity, where everyone has a role to play, where everyone has a job, a wage they can bring home, where we treat each other as human beings, with dignity? That Europe, that discussion was never had.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ken Loach, Film Director, In Britain we have a society that is harsh, that is alienated, that is angry, and it is divided.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ken Loach, Film Director, Our responsibility as film-makers, and I think we only have one responsibility, and it&rsquo;s just to tell the truth.

SOUNDBITE (German), Doris Pack, Former MEP, These films whether they are Italian, German, Estonian... very often they can&rsquo;t be understood in other countries because of the language barrier, so these was the idea behind the Lux Prize