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TERRORISM

French thriller ‘Bastille Day’ pulled after Nice attack

French film distributor Studiocanal has asked cinemas to pull the thriller "Bastille Day", about a planned attack on the eve of France's national holiday, after the real-life truck attack in Nice.

French thriller 'Bastille Day' pulled after Nice attack
Idris Elba, star of Bastille Day. Photo: AFP

The plotline of the film became even more chilling in attack-weary France after Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel smashed a truck into a crowd enjoying Bastille Day fireworks on Thursday night, killing 84.

“Bastille Day” was being shown in 237 cinemas.

“We asked all cinemas to withdraw Bastille Day because some aspects of the film are not in line with the national mood,” said a spokeswoman for Studiocanal.

The movie is a joint American, French and British production and tells the story of a young French woman who is preparing an attack on the eve of the Bastille Day, and a CIA agent played by Idris Elba who is sent to Paris to stop her.

It opened in France on July 13th, and was already on screens in Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

The film has been advertised for weeks in the capital, in metro stations and on the back of buses, but all publicity was removed on Friday after the attack.

The truck attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, was the third major strike by jihadists on France in 18 months.

It is not the first time that reality and cinematic fiction have collided in the wake of an attack.

Islamic terror thriller “Made In France” was days from its premiere when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi attacked the Charlie Hebdo weekly and an accomplice Amedy Coulibaly killed a policewoman and four Jewish hostages in January 2015.

Its distributor SND Films pulled out and the movie was eventually picked up by British company Pretty Pictures and given a new release date of November 18th.

But life again imitated art in the grimmest manner imaginable when, five days before the rescheduled premiere, members of the Islamic State group attacked a Parisian concert hall, stadium and restaurants and bars, leaving 130 dead.

Another film currently in French cinemas, “Moi, Olga” (I, Olga) tells the story of a young woman who crushes people under a truck, reported Le Figaro newspaper.

TERRORISM

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

Police in Milan said on Thursday they had arrested a 37-year-old Algerian man in the subway, later discovering he was wanted for alleged ties to Islamic State.

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

When stopped by police officers for a routine check, the man became “particularly aggressive”, said police in Milan, who added the arrest took place “in recent days”.

He was “repeatedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while attempting to grab from his backpack an object that turned out to be a knife with a blade more than 12cm (nearly five inches) long,” they said in a statement.

The man was later found to be wanted by authorities in Algeria, suspected since 2015 of belonging to “Islamic State militias and employed in the Syrian-Iraqi theatre of war,” police said.

Police said the suspect was unknown to Italian authorities.

The man is currently in Milan’s San Vittore prison and awaiting extradition, they added.

Jihadist group IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, launching a reign of terror that continues with hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.

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