A young man who was filmed without his knowledge filed a complaint in Nice (southern France) for "racial discrimination" after the broadcast of the movie "Sentinel" on Netflix, in which he was described as "bearded", according to what he said. His agent and the Public Prosecution announced Monday.
Lawyer Jean-Pascal Padovani said that his client filed a criminal complaint on June 1 for "public incitement to discrimination and racial hatred," confirming what was reported by the newspaper "Nice Matin" in this regard.
Also, the plaintiff intends to file a civil lawsuit for “exploitation of a photograph for commercial purposes without permission,” noting that he was photographed without his knowledge.
The film “Sentinel” was filmed in 2019 and was shown in March on the “Netflix” platform, and it includes a scene in which the heroine of the film observes, through the scope of her machine gun, two young men exchanging greetings and then parting on English Avenue in Nice.
The scene in the “audio description” version is accompanied by the following explanation: “Two bearded young men with two backpacks shake hands and part.”
The lawyer considered that “the director allowed himself to link the Maghreb features of the two people who were filmed, without their permission and at the scene of the July 14, 2016 attack, and the fundamentalists, and this is unacceptable. This implies that any person of Maghreb origin is likely to be a terrorist.”
The complainant, a 21-year-old electrician who lives in Nice, noted that he had received more than 80 letters from acquaintances, some of whom were shocked to see him appear as a terrorist in this feature film.
A spokesperson for “Netflix” commented on the complaint aimed at showing the movie, and it was sufficient in a statement to Agence France-Presse that the platform had no comment on the matter. However, since the complaint was submitted, the phonetic description has changed and the term “bearded” has been removed.
The trial for the Nice attack, which left 86 dead and more than 400 wounded, is scheduled to be held on English Avenue in the city in 2016, between September 5 and November 15, 2022.
