Cannes Confronts Political Turmoil, From Putin’s War to Donald Trump’s Shadow

variety.com:

Cannes Film Festival is best-known for its lavish parties and stunning red carpets, but the celebration of cinema has also often been colored by political concerns.

This year, promises to be an unusually turbulent one.After all, filmmakers, studio executives and movie lovers are assembling in the South of France as the specter of war in Ukraine and rising autocracies around the world threaten to overshadow the good times.

Indeed, the loudest applause on Cannes’ opening night were reserved for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who made a special appearance via video link in which he invoked Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” a satire of Nazism, to remind the audience of the powerful role movies can play. “Hundreds of people die every day,” Zelensky said. “Will cinema stay silent, or will it talk about it?

If there is a dictator, if there is a war for freedom, again, it all depends on our unity. Can cinema stay out of this unity?