French film director Justine Triet condemned what she called French president Emmanuel Macron’s “shocking” repression of the pension reform protests during her Palme d’Or acceptance speech at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.
After stepping on stage to accept the award for her film, “The Anatomy of a Chute,” Triet referenced the wave of protests that have gripped France this year.
“This year this country has been taken over by a historic, extremely powerful, unanimous protest on pension reform. This protest has been denied and repressed in a shocking way,” Triet stressed.
Triet maintained that an “increasingly uninhibited” power pattern is breaking out in several areas of French society including cinema.
“The commodification of culture that the neoliberal government defends is in the process of breaking the French cultural exception,” Triet continued. She was presented the award by the iconic actress Jane Fonda onstage.
“We have to make room for them, room that I was given 15 years ago in a slightly less hostile world where it was still possible to make mistakes and start again,” Triet added.