A woman protesting sexual violence in Ukraine was removed from the Cannes Film Festival red carpet during the world premiere of George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing.” Video footage from the carpet saw a woman trying to crash the event while screaming at the top of her lungs. The woman was quickly removed from the carpet by a handful of security guards.
The topless woman was wearing only panties and had the word “scum” written on her lower back. The radical feminist activist organization Scum posted on Twitter, “This activist exposed the war rapes and sexual torture committed on Ukrainian women by Russian soldiers.”
Blood red paint also appeared on her lower back and legs. The colors of the Ukrainian flag were spray-painted across the woman’s torso, as were the words: “Stop raping us.” Security guards quickly covered up the woman and removed her from the red carpet.
Variety has reached out to the Cannes Film Festival press office for comment.
The incident occurred on the red carpet at in front of the Palais for the premiere of “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” Miller’s first directorial effort since dazzling the film industry with “Mad Max: Fury Road.” The film stars Tilda Swinton as a scholar who encounters a magical Djinn (Idris Elba) while in a hotel room in Istanbul and learns of his fantastical past while contemplating the three wishes she can make in his presence. Miller, Swinton and Elba appeared on the Cannes red carpet after the woman was already removed.
Getting into Cannes’ Lumiere theater in the Palais requires multiple security checks. Guards are positioned outside of the carpet at stations that require attendees to walk through a metal detector. Once an attendee gets through that check point, they meet more guards at the start of the carpet that direct them when they are allowed to enter the theater. The red carpet itself is lined with security.
Someone just tried to crash the carpet for the premiere of George Millers’ ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing.’ #Cannes2022 pic.twitter.com/7OPyhyerDG
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) May 20, 2022
On the Cannes red carpet for George Miller’s new movie, the woman in front of me stripped off all her clothes (covered in body paint) and fell to her knees screaming in front of photographers. Cannes authorities rushed over, covered her in a coat, & blocked my camera from filming pic.twitter.com/JFdWlwVMEw
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 20, 2022
A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast