‘Saying art is not political is political’: Geeta Gandbhir, the Oscar-nominated director of The Perfect Neighbor and The Devil is Busy, on the Berlinale controversy

The idea for The Devil is Busy (streaming on JioHotstar) emerged when producers Soledad O’Brien and Rose Arce sensed that the US Supreme Court was likely to overturn federal abortion protections, leaving the issue to individual states; many of which would go on to impose near-total bans or strict gestational limits. Gandbhir recalls that the team spent over a year researching what story to tell. “We wanted to explore the impact on women and find a fresh angle,” she says. The film was shot in January 2024. They had just completed it when Owens was killed.

Owens’s death was deeply personal for Gandbhir and her family, who knew her well. “Initially, we were just trying to support her family,” she says. It was in September 2024, when the team obtained police body-camera footage, that the idea for The Perfect Neighbor took shape. “This was a film we should have never had to make because Ajike should still be with us. It wasn’t really a choice. We felt compelled to do something. The film became a kind of grief work,” says the US-based filmmaker of Indian origin. In the ’60s, her father, Sharad Gandbhir, emigrated from India to the US to study chemical engineering and was later joined by her mother Lalita.

The making of The Perfect Neighbor, currently streaming on Netflix, proved to be “emotionally and technically demanding”. The documentary was stitched together from nearly 30 hours of police evidence, which mainly comprised body-camera footage and audio recordings accessed through the Freedom of Information Act as attorneys for Owens’s family sought clarity about the events leading up to her death.

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A still from The Perfect Neighbor.

Gandbhir explains: “The footage itself was a challenge. It’s recorded on a small camera attached to a police officer’s chest. The sound isn’t production-quality. Crafting scenes out of that material was incredibly difficult.” The film was edited by Viridiana Lieberman, who previously collaborated with Gandbhir on the documentary film, I Am Evidence (2017).

While studying visual art with a focus on animation at Harvard University, Gandbhir got acquainted with writer-director Spike Lee — who was teaching there and hired her for Malcolm X (1992) — and editor Sam Pollard. Calling Lee “a massive talent and an icon”, Gandbhir says his films don’t shy away from difficult issues. “His storytelling is immersive and leans into discomfort and the cinematography is beautiful,” she says.

With Pollard and Alisa Payne, Gandbhir subsequently founded Message Pictures. Talking about Pollard’s influence, she says, “Sam always said the arc of the story had to be character-driven. He always said we could be making a social justice film but you have to find the heart of it. You have to lead with humanity and the issue will organically shine through.” She has also been influenced by Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988).

Recently, Wim Wenders, who was the jury president of the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival, sparked a controversy by saying, “We (filmmakers) have to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics; but they are the counterweight to politics.”

Commenting on this, Gandbhir said, “Any art is political. Even when you are saying something is not political, that itself is political. The idea that you can make something apolitical is not true. Artists are always on the forefront of change in society. I love Wenders’s work but his statement doesn’t make sense to me.”

Gandbhir, a second generation American, still remains connected to India. “I visited India in December for my cousin’s wedding. He had a big multi-day wedding in Hyderabad that was really fun. We also went to Mumbai and Goa. I travelled with my children, sister and brother. It was a 10-day trip but I wanted to stay longer,” she says. The filmmaker is open to the idea of making a film related to India.

“However, it has to be the right story. I live in the US and representation is really important to me. I think about this with every film. Am I the right person to tell this story? There are brilliant filmmakers in India who should be telling those stories. But if it’s the right story that I feel I am uniquely set to tell, I would do it,” she says.