The war in Ukraine took a starring role on the opening night of the 75th Cannes Film Festival and it has rarely been far out of frame since. The parties have continued nonstop, as has the red-carpet frenzy.
But throughout the French Riviera spectacular has run a discourse about the role of cinema in wartime. Movie screens have lit up with footage from the front lines and films with trenchant meaning in relation to the conflict.
Sergei Loznitsa, one of Ukraine's most acclaimed filmmakers, was putting the finishing touches on his documentary 바카라The Natural History Of Destruction바카라 when Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
The film, which premiered Monday in Cannes, uses extensive archival footage to depict the Allied bombing campaign of Germany during World War II. The question at the heart of the film, inspired by W.G. Sebald's 1999 book of the same name, is about the morality of targeting civilian populations in times of war.
With Russian bombs falling on maternity hospitals, theatres and other places crowded with sheltering civilians, 바카라The Natural History Of Destruction바카라 transformed into a film less about the past than the present.
바카라It became clear that the lessons of 80 years ago haven't been learned," said Loznitsa in an interview. 바카라It seems possible for us as humans to be thrown back 80 years to the stage where all these atrocities and terrible things were possible.바카라
바카라If we want to remain human, we need to stop this,바카라 added Loznitsa, the director of 바카라Donbass바카라 and 바카라Babi Yar바카라. 바카라This should not be acceptable to a civilized society,바카라 Loznitsa added.
The Cannes Film Festival was born out of war. The start of World War II forced the postponement of the inaugural festival, in 1939. Cannes was initially conceived as a counter to the Venice Film Festival, which had then fallen under the influence of Mussolini and Hitler.
This year's festival has unspooled against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, and sometimes in spite of it. Sit-ins haven't replaced late-night soirees on the Croisette, nor has attention wavered substantially from the parade of stars posing in front of barricades of photographers.
Jet fighters have been airborne here, but only to promote Tom Cruise's 바카라Top Gun: Maverick바카라. After two years of pandemic, Cannes has very eagerly gotten back to frolicking in the Cote d'Azur sun.
On opening night last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy challenged filmmakers to take up the mantle of Charlie Chaplin's 바카라The Great Dictator바카라 and 바카라demonstrate that the cinema of our time is not silent".
And in the days that have followed, the role of cinema while thousands are dying in Ukraine has been an ongoing dialogue 바카라 and Cannes has been a platform for protest.
One woman burst onto the red carpet and shed her clothes to reveal the Ukrainian flag painted on her torso, blood drawn on her body and the message 바카라Stop raping us바카라.
On Wednesday, the producers of the Ukrainian film 바카라Butterfly Vision바카라, by Maksym Nakonechny, wore t-shirts with an image of an explosion on the front that read 바카라Sensitive Content: Russians kill Ukrainians. Do you find it offensive and disturbing to talk about this genocide?바카라
바카라War is about killing people. It's about destroying everything,바카라 said Kirill Serebrennikov, a Russian filmmaker who has fled his homeland after several years of home arrest and travel ban. 바카라Art is always against war.바카라
The very presence of Serebrennikov, who premiered the period drama 바카라Tchaikovsky's Wife바카라, at Cannes has been much debated. His film was partly financed by Russian oligarch and former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovitch.
Cannes' artistic director, Thierry Fremaux, acknowledged on the eve of the festival that he had wrestled with the decision but ultimately decided to screen 'Tchaikovsky's Wife' since the film took funding from Abramovitch before sanctions were enacted, and because Serebrennikov challenges state propaganda.
Cannes, a kind of Olympics for film, elected to ban Russian delegates and Russians with ties to the Kremlin. In most years, the yachts of Russian oligarchs are a regular presence off the Cannes shores.
In Ruben Ostlund's social satire 바카라Triangle Of Sadness바카라 (one of the films competing for Cannes' Palme d'Or), Woody Harrelson plays a Marxist yacht captain who drunkenly debates politics with a Russian oligarch.
바카라I'm an anarchist," Harrelson told reporters. "I'm the kind of guy who thinks it's abominable when a superpower with all this military might and with no provocation attacks a country.바카라
Tilda Swinton, who stars with Idris Elba in George Miller's 바카라Three Thousand Years Of Longing바카라, an expansive modern fairy tale about the nature of storytelling, drew a pointed parallel between propaganda and the diverse perspectives of fiction.
바카라The thing that's dangerous is when you have only one story,바카라 said Swinton. 바카라It's when people can't hear any other stories that things go down the tubes very fast.바카라
Other films were more directly connected with the war. Lithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravicius was killed last month in Ukraine. His fiancée Hanna Bilobrova brought the footage he shot out of Ukraine and, with editors, assembled the documentary 바카라Mariupolis 2.바카라 Introducing the film, Bilobrova cried as she thanked the crowd for honouring Kvedaravicius' legacy.
바카라What madness,바카라 a Mariupol man says in the film, with bombs echoing nearby. 바카라I don't know how the Earth holds up.바카라
The contrast between such films and Cannes' more frivolous, celebrity-crazed side can be head-spinning.
For filmmakers like Loznitsa, it can be surreal being at one of the most glamorous places in the world while 1,000 miles to the northwest the war rages on.
바카라I don't think the role of cinema, of art, in general, has changed. Our duty as filmmakers is to try to understand what's going on around us," said Loznitsa, who was kicked out of the Ukrainian Film Academy for not supporting a boycott of Russian filmmakers.
"I believe our duty is to defend culture, all culture. The culture of any nation, of any people, belongs to the entire world.바카라
To explain the feeling of being in Cannes, Loznitsa cited the W.H. Auden poem 바카라September 1, 1939," written in New York on the day WWII broke out: 바카라I sit in one of the dives/On Fifty-second Street/Uncertain and afraid/ As the clever hopes expire."
[With Inputs From PTI 바카라 AP]
