Veteran director Wim Wenders has hailed the power of cinema to help heal a broken planet as he takes up the jury presidency of the Berlinale, the most politically charged of Europe’s big three international film festivals.

Asked about the role of movies in the current climate of war and social upheaval, the auteur behind Wings of Desire and the Oscar-nominated Perfect Days said he saw film-making as an act of bridge-building and generating empathy.

“Yes, movies can change the world,” he told reporters in the German capital at the start of the 11-day event. “Not in a political way. No movie has really changed any politician’s idea, but … we can change the idea that people have of how they should live.”

Fielding a pointed question about German support for Israel during the Gaza war and “selective” solidarity with besieged peoples around the world, Wenders pushed back at the notion that the film industry or the festival should actively take political stances.

“We have to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics,” he said. “But we are the counterweight of politics, we are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.”

Polish producer Ewa Puszczyńska, a member of Wenders’s jury, called the question’s framing “unfair”.

“Of course, we are trying to talk to people and make them think, but we cannot be responsible for what their decision would be, to support Israel or to support Palestine,” she said.

“There are many wars where genocide is committed, and we do not talk about them … so this is a complicated question and it’s a bit of an unfair question.”

The seven-member panel will choose from among 22 features from around the world for the Golden and Silver Bear top prizes, to be awarded at a gala ceremony on 21 February.

The festival will open with No Good Men by Shahrbanoo Sadat, billed as Afghanistan’s first romcom, screening out of competition.

The event, now in its 76th year, will roll out the red carpet for stars showing new work including Amy Adams, Channing Tatum, Pamela Anderson, Ashley Walters, Callum Turner, Ethan Hawke, Gemma Chan and Charli xcx.

But the bulk of the approximately 200 feature films and documentaries in the Berlinale programme place the accent on the impact of geopolitical tumult and rights struggles around the world, Wenders noted.

“Cinema has an incredible power of being compassionate and empathetic,” he said. “The news is not empathetic. Politics is not empathetic, but movies are. And that’s our duty.”

The Berlinale ranks with Cannes and Venice among Europe’s top film festivals.