Cannes jury president Inarritu criticizes Trump’ policies

Being questioned about his thoughts on Trump's proposed wall at the US-Mexico border, Inarritu- the first jury president from Mexico in Cannes history- lashed out at American president's policies.

Politicians like Trump, Iñárritu said, "are basically ruling with rage and angriness . . . and are basically writing fiction and making people believe that those are facts. I am not a politician, but as an artist, I can express with an open heart what I think to be truthful [from working] with immigrants . . . The problem is ignorance. People do not know [their story], so it is very easy [for politicians] to manipulate them."

An international film festival like Cannes, Iñárritu argued, is a way for audiences to be transported into different cultures and see how others live.

"In the United States, or in Mexico-where you isolate nationalistically, people just identify with themselves, and it is a very dangerous thing," Iñárritu said. "Because then we don't consider the otherness."

"I am against what is happening all around the world, and I expect that there will be something that happens that stops this dangerous thing. We know how this story ends if we keep with that rhetoric. . . We think we are evolving with technology and social media," he continued, before alluding to the Twitter-happy U.S. president. "But it seems that every Tweet is a brick of isolation and attached ideological thinking, and it is creating a lot of isolation, and a lot of paranoia with it."

Source: Mehr