Europe's rising nationalism is putting pressure on film directors and the stories they tell

European cinema is reflecting a continent shaken by immigration, terrorism, identity and faith. But it comes at a time when nationalism and alt-right movements are challenging the artistic freedoms of filmmakers nearly 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of liberal democracy.

Existential threats and unsettled ghosts have shaped Europe for centuries, but newly emboldened populist leaders, some of whom echo the blunt nativism of President Trump, have ignited cultural wars aimed at anything that disrupts their self-serving narratives. The idiosyncratic filmmaking tradition that inspired Italian neorealism and the French New Wave is under pressure as histories are re-invented and old heroes discarded.

Fears among directors, writers and artists are likely to deepen after Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday. The summit arrived as Trump has damaged relations with European allies while praising Putin, whose authoritarian government in recent years has arrested a prominent Moscow theater director, jailed