Cannes, please revoke the ban on Lars von Trier

Cannes boots von Trier for Hitler comments

Cannes festival reacts to Danish director's strange remarks about Nazis by declaring him 'persona non grata.'

Copyright (c) CBC 2011


Lars von Trier

Cannes, please revoke the ban on Lars von Trier

The controversial Danish film director and screenwriter Lars von Trier is well known for his provocative art films such as the horrifying Gothic and pornographic Antichrist that also shocked audiences at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in 2009. Therefore, when it was reported that he has rattled the organizers of the festival at the Wednesday press parley before the premiere of his apocalyptic science fiction film Melancholia at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, I was not surprised, because it is his signature for grabbing headlines. The organizers should have ignored his “I’M A NAZI” joke and claiming to understand Adolf Hitler. He has done it again and got the whole paparazzi going gaga over his unsavoury act. And then apologized after getting the attention for his his new film. Lars von Trier's shocking allusion to Adolf Hitler is another deliberate kind of deus ex machina and it has attracted the attention of the global village.

"I am not anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi," Lars von Trier said.
"I really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I was really a Nazi, because, you know, my family was German," von Trier said. "Which also gave me some pleasure."

"What can I say? I understand Hitler, but I think he did some wrong things, yes, absolutely. But I can see him sitting in his bunker in the end," von Trier said. "He's not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him, and I sympathize with him a little bit. But come on, I'm not for the Second World War, and I'm not against Jews."

Declaring him "persona non grata" and banning him from future Cannes is UNFAIR and HYPOCRITICAL!

Hello Festival de Cannes! What happened to Freedom of Expression or Free Speech which is clearly defined and stated in Articles 18 and 19 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights Charter

Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Please, the Cannes Film Festival should revoke the ban on this extraordinary radical Danish filmmaker and screenwriter, because it is reactionary and retrogressive in the further development of film-making as an art and a democratic vehicle for intellectual freedom.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima