A bomb threat led to the evacuation of the Bastia theater and spectators gathered Friday evening for the first screening in Corsica of a film inspired by a double assassination on the island, we learned from the prosecution , relief and organization. At 10:00 p.m., two hours after the evacuation, the screening of the film was finally able to begin, the alert having been lifted after the passage of the deminers, noted an AFP journalist on site. Among the approximately 700 spectators were the prefect of Haute-Corse and the mayor of Bastia.
“The gendarmes received an anonymous call reporting the presence of an explosive charge” in the building, François Thévenot, acting prosecutor of Bastia, told AFP. “A CRS brigade showed up and told us that they had received a call alerting them to the presence of a parcel bomb,” Mélanie Manigand, director of the Arte Mare film festival, told AFP. The police did not make a direct link with the screening of the film Borgoin the presence of the director and part of the team, she added.
Controversy surrounding the film
This feature film by Stéphane Demoustier is inspired by the story of a prison guard involved in a double assassination perpetrated in 2017 at Bastia-Poretta airport and whose trial is due to begin in May. This film has sparked controversy in recent weeks on the island, its theatrical release being planned before the trial before the Bouches-du-Rhône Assize Court. “If I had wanted to make a controversial film, I would take responsibility for it, but that is not the case,” insisted Stéphane Demoustier before the resumption of the screening, forty-five minutes behind the initially planned schedule. .
Mr. Julien Pinelli, lawyer for one of the 17 indicted in this case, told AFP that it was “particularly regrettable that a work of fiction takes hold before the trial even begins” this file which “is not a spectacle or entertainment” but “reality in its most dramatic aspect for the people and families concerned”.
On December 5, 2017, Jean-Luc Codaccioni and Antoine Quilichini, two men considered to be members of Corsican organized crime, were victims of an ambush by a shooter at Bastia-Poretta airport. Seriously injured, the first died a few days later, the second died instantly. In total, 17 people were indicted in this case, including a guard at Borgo prison accused of helping to identify the targets.