A cinephile from Toulouse, outraged by the programming of “Gaza, after October 7” at Utopia Borderouge, denounces the programmer's lack of counterpoint. Jean doesn't intend to stop there. Controversy.
“The only objective is to add fuel to the fire.” Jean, a cinephile from Toulouse, was upset to discover Utopia Borderouge programming. On September 27, the cinema will screen “Gaza, after October 7”, a shocking film edited by Aymeric Caron, based on images sent from the Palestinian enclave.
“We excite passions at the risk of importing conflicts”
“There are images of probable war crimes, but only to show that, without talking about the origins of the conflict, all presented by an LFI MP accused of anti-Semitism, which only create hatred” the fifty-year-old loses his temper and adds: “Utopia is dishonest with this incriminating film as we witness an explosion of anti-Semitic acts in France.”
According to Jean, the leadership is playing a dangerous game: “On October 7, women were raped and terrorists cut off their breasts! By showing that only Jews commit horrors, we stir up passions at the risk of importing the conflict.” The Toulouse native has written to the prefecture, the region, the city hall of Toulouse to complain and plans to refer the case to the prosecutor for incitement to hatred (an action that has little chance of success, editor's note). “It would be easy to get this movie banned, show up with 300 people and put b… but I don't want to do that, I just want awareness.”
“We don't put a target on anyone's back”
Contacted, Arnaud Clappier, director of Utopia Borderouge, claims that he did not receive our reader's email. “We are not putting a target on anyone's back, the film is about an occupying army and a martyred population,” he defends. For the programmer, the viewers of Utopia Borderouge are part of an informed public: “Since the opening of the cinema, we have shown around fifty films related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From all possible angles. And the audience comes to see this film. with full knowledge of the facts”.
If he easily admits that this war must be placed in its context, Arnaud Clappier believes that “the massacres of October 7 were widely documented”, therefore, “it was necessary to show this moment of repression seen from the inside, without counterpoint. ” Originally announced, Aymeric Caron is not yet certain to be present at the screening in Borderouge.