Woman strips off on the red carpet in Cannes to protest Ukraine rapes

A woman stripped off on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival to reveal her body painted in the colours of the Ukrainian flag with the words “Stop Raping Us” in a solo protest on Friday.

ALSO READ: Surprise! Zelensky appeal beamed in to Cannes as festival begins

‘HUNDREDS OF CASES OF RAPE’ REPORTED IN UKRAINE

Wearing underpants stained red, the demonstrator shouted and posed for photographers before being led off by security guards.

The stunt briefly interrupted the parade of guests in evening wear, including Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, attending the premiere of their film Three Thousand Years of Longing by George Miller.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that investigators had received reports of “hundreds of cases of rape” in areas previously occupied by Russian troops, including sexual assaults of small children.

Activist Crashes Cannes Red Carpet to Protest Rape in Ukraine https://t.co/uyT3jissSz pic.twitter.com/I3yOu7YdDS

— Jezebel (@Jezebel) May 20, 2022

UKRAINE GETS SPOTLIGHTS AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Zelensky, a former actor, launched a video appeal for aid for his country at the Cannes opening ceremony on Tuesday.

The war has already been a major theme at the festival, with a special screening on Thursday of Mariupolis 2, a documentary by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who was killed in Ukraine last month – reportedly by Russian forces.

Ukraine’s beleaguered filmmakers will get a special day at the industry marketplace on Saturday and one of its most promising directors, Sergei Loznitsa, will show The Natural History of Destruction, about the bombing of German cities in World War II.

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

© Agence France-Presse