[사진 제공: 연합뉴스]
“Hate will pass, dictators will die, and power taken will return to the people.”
– Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine-
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise appearance at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, which opened on the 17th local time.
Citing lines from Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece ‘The Great Dictator’, he urged the film industry to fight the ‘dictator’.
According to foreign media such as The New York Times and AFP, President Zelensky asked the film industry to reproduce the ‘power of cinema’ that Chaplin showed during World War II through a video speech.
The Great Dictator, released in 1940, is a poignant mockery of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in a fictional country Tomania reminiscent of the German Nazi regime, directed, written and starred by Chaplin.
“Hundreds of people are dying every day,” he asked. “Will the film be silent or will it have a voice?”
“If there is a dictator, if there is a war for freedom, the film should not be silent.”
“Chaplin didn’t bring down a real dictator, but that movie didn’t keep the film world quiet,” he said.
“We must win (the war against Russia),” he said.
President Zelensky’s speech that day received a standing ovation from the filmmakers and the audience.
This year’s Cannes Film Festival is taking ‘war’ as the main theme.
Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedarapisius, who is known to have died in a Russian attack in Ukraine last month, will also be screening a special documentary ‘Mariopolis 2’.
At the 64th Grammy Awards held in the US last month, President Zelensky appealed for support for Ukraine, saying, “Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos. They sing songs in hospitals for the wounded.”
