An amusing story coming from France.
The French Minister of Defence took to twitter to criticize and rage about the portrait of the French army in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.
In ‘Wakanda Forever’ French troops are caught trying to steal resources belonging to the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda. They are presented in the film as predators pillaging African resources, which is even touchier nowadays as it follows the anti-French “propaganda” being spread in Africa.
Journalist Jean Bexon, who had originally posted about his ‘Wakanda Forever, discontent, noted, "The evil French mercenaries operating in Mali are dressed like soldiers from Operation Barkhane," a real-life military mission.
The defence ministry told AFP that France was not calling for withdrawal or censorship of a work of art. But "no revisionism can be allowed about France's recent actions in Mali: we intervened at the county's own request to fight armed terrorist groups, far from the story told in the film, namely a French army coming to pillage natural resources.”
Of course, no skewed depiction of the French could save the bloated ‘Wakanda Forever,’ which was still celebrated by critics for its inclusivity and might give Angela Bassett her first ever Oscar win for playing Queen Ramonda.
I still maintain that there’s a good film hidden somewhere underneath the sequel’s 161 minute runtime. It has its moments, but, man, the excess was a little too much.