The Cannes Film Festival has always been a platform where political comments from A-listers and filmmakers take center stage. A day after Marvel actor Sebastian Stan said that America is in a, ‘’bad place’’ under President Donald Trump’s tenure, Oscar-winning filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar slammed Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin.
Almodóvar, who is attending the festival to present his latest film Bitter Christmas in competition, called the three world leaders “monsters.”
“As Europeans, we are also obliged to become a kind of shield against these monsters like Trump, Netanyahu, or the Russian,” the director told a press conference, referring to the US, Russian and Israeli leaders.
“The creator, from their small platform, each from their own, must speak without mincing words,” said Almodovar.
“Silence and fear - because it is clearly an expression of fear - are a very bad sign; they are a sign of the erosion of democracy,” said the director, who has never shied away from sharing his political views at public events and has been a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza. The Oscar-winner also wore a “Free Palestine” pin at the Cannes red carpet, showing his public stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. “Trump must know that there is a limit to all his delusions and madness, and that Europe will never bow down to Trump’s policies,” he added. (Agencies)