Brussels (AFP)
Posters hostile to Roman Polanski were posted in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday by feminist activists on the facades of three cinemas in Brussels who program his film "J'accuse", we learned from sources concordantes.
"Polanski rapist, guilty cinema, public accomplice", denounces one of the posters that have been stuck on the doors and facades of UGC De Brouckère cinemas, UGC Golden Fleece and the independent cinema Palace.
A photo of the French-Polish director, targeted by a new charge of rape, is accompanied by the slogan "leave the girls alone", name of a feminist collective.
Other posters carry the messages "Polanski pedophrenic unpunished" or "I abuse and you finance".
"We demand that the screenings of this film be canceled, as well as the media and billboard campaigns planned," said in a statement the "collective of associations, activists and personalities", including "Leave the girls quiet "and" Pay your shoot ", who claimed these actions and published the pictures.
"To program + J'accuse +, is to legitimize Roman Polanski in his quest for absolution Programmer + J'accuse +, it is to support the impunity of the sexual violence", denounces still this collective.
The sessions have not been disturbed, unlike what may have happened in France, said the cinemas to AFP.
The posters have been removed, the UGC said.
The Palace cinema said it received "one or two calls asking to stop broadcasting the film" but "does not consider the deprogramming".
The director of cinema, whose board of directors is chaired by director Luc Dardenne, said that a debate on the film would be proposed soon.
"J'accuse", a film about the Dreyfus affair with Jean Dujardin, had an eventful comeback in France, with sessions canceled in Paris and Rennes after blockades by feminists.
However, this did not prevent the film from reaching the top of the French box office over five days, at the end of the weekend.
A few days before her release, photographer Valentine Monnier accused Roman Polanski of having beaten her and raped her in 1975 when she was eighteen, reviving the anger of feminists towards the director.
This accusation of rape, which the 86-year-old French-Polish director contests, is in addition to those made by other women in recent years, for prescribed facts.
Polanski is still facing prosecution in the United States for illegal sex with a minor in 1977.
Faced with the new controversy, a major French filmmakers organization has proposed new rules for its members convicted or prosecuted for sexual violence, which will lead to suspend the director.
© 2019 AFP