PRO-WAR FILM SPOTTED ON CROISETTE

May 14, 2005 (Guardian) - A strongly pro-war film has been premiered at the Cannes film festival - and it comes from Iraq.

The main part of Hiner Saleem's Kilomètre Zéro, premiered in competition for the Palme D'Or, is set in 1988 against the backdrop of the deaths of thousands of Iraqi Kurds at the hands of Saddam's cousin, "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majid.

It is framed by scenes of the main characters, now exiled in France, rejoicing at the fall of Baghdad in 2003.

"I am against war of any kind," Saleem said. "But we didn't have the luxury to say, 'For the time being, we will be exterminated'.

"If you say that the US is an imperialist country, then you are right. Had Sweden, Liechtenstein, France, come, it would have been wonderful. But they gave the US free rein; I am extremely pleased."

The scene of jubilation in the final moments of the film was "still valid. I would like to say I am optimistic," he said.

Saleem, who has lived in France since the early 1980s and whose previous work includes Vodka Lemon, said the film was based on real events that happened to his brother.

We also are extremely pleased.

Cannes Director Gilles Jacob, perhaps with Kilomètre Zéro in mind, tries to redress Cannes' reputation as a film festival and not a moonbat swarm:

The director of the Cannes film festival warned the prize-giving jury yesterday that its decisions should be based on film-making rather than politics - a clear reference to last year, when Michael Moore's controversial Fahrenheit 9/11*, a tirade against President George W Bush, won the top prize, the Palme d'Or.

Director Gilles Jacob, speaking as the 58th Cannes festival opened, said Moore's talent was "not in doubt". But he had won the Palme d'Or "for political rather than cinematographic reasons, no matter what the jury said".

* Here is Christopher Hitchens' concise description of Mr. Moore's frolic in revisionism:

To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.

Thanks for revisiting my favorite Hitchens rant ever. ;)