‘Something extra’: Disability minister wants accessible steps in Cannes

The image outraged the minister responsible for people with disabilities. On Wednesday, the crew of the film “Un p’tit truc en plus” walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. But while walking up the steps leading to the Palais des Festivals, Artus, the director of the successful feature film, had to carry Sofiane Ribes, one of the disabled actors in the film.

If the arrival of the Artus gang – “eleven disabled actors and four classics, four boring let’s say,” he joked into the France Inter microphone – to the sounds of “Organized Group” or “Click-click-pan-pan” was noticed, Fadila Khattabi was unhappy that disabled actors were not given access.

“This is no longer acceptable”

“I congratulated them (the organisers) on a very successful climb up the steps on Wednesday evening, but at the same time I told them that there had been a glitch,” explained the minister delegate in charge of older people and people with disabilities in Nice. Matins. “Seeing images like this is no longer acceptable, it is an attack on human dignity that needs to be raised to the top. »

She hopes the sequence will constitute an “electrocution” but warns: “Next year the steps need to be handicapped accessible. It is not they who must adapt to society, but society as a whole that must adapt to them. »

This comedy is designed to laugh with people with disabilities, not at their expense. When asked about the reasons for its success, Artus said that “in this somewhat troubling era, this film does good” and allows us to discover “a population we don’t often see, people in situations of mental illness.” disability”.