Amin Arteze: The poster of the movie caused a big scandal

Kurt Gerstein is a Waffen SS officer specializing in chemistry and its health programs. In Poland, he discovered to his horror that the gas he was supplying the camps with, Zyklon B, was actually being used for the mass extermination of Jews. He decides to alert the Vatican so that the Pope can openly denounce these crimes. In Berlin he found an attentive ear in the person of a Jesuit whose father was high in the secular hierarchy of the Church. They both go to Rome…

César for Best Screenplay in 2003, Costa-Gavras’ Amen was a shock after its release, recognized by more than 1.3 million viewers. Adapted from the play by Rolf Hochhut Reverend, the film condemns the passivity of the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII in the face of the genocide of the Jews. But the director doesn’t just blame the Vatican; He also criticizes the attitude of the Allied Powers, who were also informed of the crimes of the Nazis.

The Church condemns the union between Nazism and Catholicism

A real abscess of fixation followed the release of the film, in particular its poster, a composition combining the Christian cross and the swastika, all on a red and black background, in the colors of Nazism. It is signed by the great photographer Oliviero Toscani, the author of the Benetton brand advertising campaigns and accustomed to sulphurous creations.

This poster caused a strong reaction as soon as the work was presented at the Berlinale in February 2002. This creation has been rated. “unacceptable” by Monsignor Jean-Pierre Ricard, then President of the French Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop of Bordeaux.

added in the press release that he represented “The intolerable identification of the symbol of the Christian faith with Nazi barbarism.” A “provocation” which should have been “Condemn all those who are attached to human dignity, human freedom and respect for faith.”

A complaint has been filed

Costa-Gavras was protecting himself from something “Offense of defamation against any religious group” and said that he had not seen it “No intentional provocative character.” Although the French bishops’ conference did not file a complaint to have the poster removed, AGRIF, an ultra-Catholic association, took care of it and called the film’s producer and director into summary production to get it removed. Removed, banned.

The outcome of this legal battle will come in May 2003, more than a year after the film’s release. In its ruling, the Paris Criminal Court ruled “Catholics, or more generally Christians today (…) are not targeted for possible defamatory attributions” What affected the clergy the most.

AGRIF (acronym for “General Alliance Against Racism and Respect for French and Christian Identity”) was not his first attempt. In 1985, he had it too Tried to ban Screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s film Hail Mary.