Anti-war protester covers herself in fake blood on Cannes red carpet

A woman dressed in the colours of the Ukrainian flag was removed from the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday after she poured fake blood over herself in an apparent anti-war protest.

The incident took place ahead of the premiere of the film Acide by French film director Just Philippot on Sunday evening, at the festival in the south of France.

It was not immediately clear why the demonstration took place at that screening.

The protester, wearing a yellow and blue dress and blue-heeled shoes, appeared to reach into her dress and pull out two capsules of the red substance, before releasing them over her head as she smiled for the cameras. The fake blood pooled onto the steps of the red carpet beneath her.

The woman was then escorted down the stairs by a security guard and away from the event.

Thierry Frémaux, the director of the Cannes Film Festival, said before the event began last week that it stood in solidarity with Ukraine.

At the festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday evening, French actress Catherine Deneuve paid tribute to the victims of the war by reciting the poem Hope by Lesya Ukrainka, the Ukrainian poet.

A ban on Russian delegations or film companies connected to the Russian government remains in place at this year’s festival, after being implemented last year.

At last year’s film festival in Cannes, a Ukrainian woman staged a protest on the red carpet against the Russian forces by stripping naked and revealing the message “stop raping us” written in body paint across her chest, against a blue and yellow flag.

The demonstration came amid reports that soldiers were committing acts of sexual violence against women in Ukraine.