It was during the opening of the 75th Cannes Film Festival that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the whole world to deliver a message of peace and support to his country. He evokes, in particular, “The Dictator” by Charlie Chaplin.
A striking appearance for the opening ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival. It was on the giant screen of the Théâtre Lumière that the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, addressed the whole world. Under the applause of the room, the Head of State, live from the city of kyiv, pays tribute to the courage and strength of his country, but also to the power of cinema, capable of moving the lines.
In his speech, the politician denounces the horror and the ravages of war, quoting a line from Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola – Palme d’or in 1979: “You have heard most of these words before. They sound terrible on the screen, but it has become reality. Do not forget it.”
Subsequently, Volodymyr Zelensky alludes to Charlie Chaplin’s classic, The Dictator, released in 1940. A satire against Nazism and the figure of Adolf Hitler. “The dictator of Charlie Chaplin did not destroy, at the time, the real dictator. But thanks to this film, cinema has ceased to be silent. Dumb in every sense of the word. It was the voice of future victory and freedom.”
The president quotes a few lines from Charlie Chaplin’s iconic final monologue: “Hatred will eventually disappear and dictators will die, and the power they took from the peoples will return to the peoples. And as long as men die, freedom cannot perish.”
He pursues : “One would have thought that everyone had understood that the horror of the war would have no consequence. But again, then as now, there is a dictator and a war for freedom. Again, then as now, cinema should not be silent.”
“I’m sure the dictator will lose, he asserts. We need a new Chaplin, we need to remember his words.” To conclude his speech of several minutes, Volodymyr Zelensky chants “Glory to Ukraine” before disappearing from the screen.
A documentary about the city of Mariupol
A film, present in the selection of this 75th edition, will tell the horrors of the war in Ukraine. Mariupolis 2 by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius will be screened Out of Competition. The 45-year-old documentary maker was killed in early April in Ukraine by the Russian occupiers while shooting his feature film.
The project “shows the life that continues under the bombs and reveals images as tragic as they bring hope“. The film was co-directed by his fiancée, Hanna Bilobrova, who brought the footage back to deliver it to editor Dounia Sichov.