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France

The odious anti-RN clip by the “rappers of fear”

They have taken hostage the beautiful rallying cry of the Spanish Republicans during the civil war from 1936 to 1939: “No pasaran” (“They shall not pass”). That's the title a score of rappers dared to give to an infamous video intended to mobilise against the National Rally. Under the guise of calling young people to their duty as citizens, these brilliant artists, anxious - they tell the gogos - to “get back to the essence of rap”, pour out ten minutes of calls for hatred, murder, rape and pogroms. As unbearable as it is to even mention these rants, here are a few that are more akin to the courts than to a “rather exciting variety of angles”, as Libération swoons.

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!