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Marjane Satrapi: The Passing of a Free Conscience Between Iran and the West

With the passing of Marjane Satrapi, the world of arts loses far more than a talented graphic novelist or an acclaimed filmmaker. It loses a unique voice that, for more than two decades, embodied the often-challenging dialogue between East and West, between the memory of exile and the enduring hope for freedom.

Cannes Film festival | “Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki A burlesque and melancholy masterpiece

After a six-year absence and seventeen years of sobriety (feigned or real?), the great Finnish master of zany comedy, Aki Kaurismäki, is back in the footsteps of his famous “losers' trilogy” (“Drifting Clouds” - 1996 , “The Man Without a Past” - 2002 , “Lights in the Dusk” - 2006). Presented in the Official Competition, his latest opus “Fallen Leaves” won the Jury Prize and dazzled the Croisette with its offbeat, minimalist aesthetic.

Cannes Film festival | “Four Daughters” by Kaouther Ben Hania: How does Islamist brainwashing work?

Based on the true story of a family tragedy that shook Tunisia in 2014: that of Olfa Hamrouni and her 4 daughters, two of whom were indoctrinated by ISIS, Kaouther Ben Hania's “Olfa’s Daughters” brilliantly and insightfully dissects the indoctrination process through which Islamists brainwash the socially and psychologically fragile.

For Salman | Petition: North Africans intellectuals in solidarity with Salman Rushdie

Two hundred intellectuals and civil society activists, as well as some thirty associations, in the Maghreb and in the North African diaspora in Europe, have made public a petition denouncing the assassination attempt against Salman Rushdie, entitled ‘’We refuse to allow the crime to be committed in our name’’. Here is the full verbatim:

Cinema | The scandalous (hairless) documentary by Diam’s!

After the headless (Islamist) models, here is the documentary without hair! Presented in a special screening at the last Cannes Film Festival, “Salam” by the former rapper Diam's (co-directed with Houda Benyamina and Anne Cissé) is a Salafist propaganda film strictly framed by the standards of the most rigorous Islamism.

Cinema | Cannes Film Festival: Zelensky pits Chaplin against Putin!

The opening ceremony of the 75th Cannes International Film Festival was marked by a surprise live intervention by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called on the new generation of filmmakers to confront dictators, as Charlie Chaplin had done with his satire of Adolf Hitler in “The Great Dictator” (1940)

Cinema | Cannes Film Festival: The hymn to the commitment of President Lindon

In a poignant speech that marked the opening ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival, French actor Vincent Lindon, who chairs the official competition jury, distinguished himself with an ode to the committed and civic cinema he has described as a "weapon of massive emotion", whose function is to "awaken consciences and shake up indifference". Lindon, who has repeatedly moved the Croisette through social and militant films - from "La Loi du marché » (The Law of the Market), 2005,...

Profile | Street Art vs. Coronavirus

Ultimate libertarian and subversive mode of artistic expression, the street art experienced a spectacular proliferation during the Covid-19 pandemic. At a time when museums, theatres, concert halls and cinemas were forced to close, and when the world of art and culture was suffering the full force of the horrors of confinement, street art managed to sneak out, literally and figuratively!