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dam-l Arundhati Roy brings Naramada to Cannes
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subject: LS: Roy Brings the Narmada to Cannes . . .
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Novelist seeks to bring a sense of reality to Cannes
The Guardian
Thursday May 11, 2000
Arundhati Roy brought a sharp
dose of reality to the Cannes film festival
yesterday by calling for an end
to a massive Indian dam project she said
would impoverish millions of
the world's poorest people.
The emotional plea from the
Booker prize-winning novelist - a member of
the jury which will decide the
Palme d'Or - came as a typically Cannes
tantrum over a ban on late
night beach parties threatened to overshadow the
first day of the festival.
Roy, 36, who was a screenwriter
in India before The God of Small Things
brought her worldwide fame,
said that having just arrived from the
Narmada valley in central
India, where farmers have been arrested for
protesting against their land
being flooded, she found it "hard to connect" to
the media circus of Cannes.
She said: "I have just come
from a world where terrible things are
happening and the lives of
millions of people are being ruined. One journeys
between powerlessness and
power. I wish that only a few of the cameramen
and journalists who are here
today could have been in the Narmada valley to
witness the terrible things I
have been seeing."
Roy, who has campaigned against
the network of 165 dams, the world's
biggest, since she won the
Booker three years ago, said: "It's a sign of the
times that I have been called
an activist here today. It's a writer's business
to comment on the world we live
in - but when you do you get called an
activist."
She said the dam would be an
environmental as well as an economic disaster
for the valley, swamping a
150-mile stretch of some of the most beautiful
and fertile land in India.
Her comments were met with an
awkward silence in the Palais du Cinema,
where the main films in the
Cannes competition are shown. Roy was hurried
out of the building by security
guards when the Guardian tried to question
her further.
The Independent, London
11 May 2000
Moral responsibility (and early closing)
give the first day of
Cannes an unusual
sobriety
The organisers of the
opening day of the world's most
glamorous film festival
didn't know what hit them yesterday, as
movie glitz and excess came
under attack from all directions.
First, the Cannes
festival's decision to have a Booker
Prize-winning political
activist on the jury rebounded when
Arundhati Roy told the
journalists and photographers at the
opening press conference
that they should be elsewhere in
the world "where terrible
things are happening".
Next, the town's mayor
decided to order all beach parties to
end just after midnight.
And then, with a French prime minister
visiting the festival for
the first time, police went into overdrive,
raiding incoming trains to
weed out undesirables.
It was down to the
Hollywood actress Uma Thurman, starring
in the opening film Vatel,
to smile seductively and say: "I love
France and I love this
festival. It celebrates film and utterly
indulges the highest levels
of glamour." But she must have
wondered if she'd come to
the right place.
It was Roy, the author of
The God of Small Things, who first
set the cat among the
pigeons. Flanked on the festival jury by
performers Kristin Scott
Thomas and Jeremy Irons, and
directors Luc Besson and
Jonathan Demme, she admitted
she was not part of the
film world. She said she had just come
from the Narmada Valley in
south India where there had been
anti-government protests
against the construction of a
massive dam.
In an emotional and
impassioned outburst she said she felt it
hard "to connect" between
that and the glamour of Cannes.
She said: "To be honest,
I've just come from a world where
terrible things are
happening. One journeys between
powerlessness and power. I
so wish that all the cameramen
and all the journalists
[here] were in the places where terrible
things were happening."
Having been reminded of
their moral responsibilities, the
movie world was also
reminded of the need for sobriety.
Cannes' mayor, Maurice
Delauney, sent off a memo to hotels
and party organisers
informing them that all beach parties (the
high point in Cannes glitz
and exclusivity) must end promptly at
12.30am.
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