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SARS shadow over Cannes fete

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

PARIS MAY 9. The Cannes International Film Festival, beginning next week, is facing a typically French menace: a nationwide public workers' strike on May 13.

After the battered Franco-American relations over Iraq and the still hot SARS scare, the strike will undoubtedly be a major irritant for thousands of people from across the globe sitting on Cannes-bound trains and planes just a day ahead of the Festival's opening night on May 14. The strike, which is bound to affect the French national railway company (SNFC) and even private firms such as Air France, is a protest against the Government's move to add three more years to one's working life.

Although one is not sure how widely the strike will be observed, the Festival's managing director, Veronique Cayla, has a word of advice for participants: "Try and travel on May 12 or 14... Avoid May 13."

This is a typical French reaction. Although strikes occur frequently in France, admittedly with varying impacts on everyday life, the people here tend to be over cautious. They stay at home, away from work, rather than be harassed by delays on road, on rail or in air as well as by overcrowded public transport systems.

In addition to the planned strike nuisance, there is this medical test. Ms. Cayla said moviemakers and others from SARS-hit Asian countries would have to undergo health checks before they could attend the Festival.

Teams from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have agreed to the examination for their own peace of mind, and that of the others.

Some such as the Chinese actor, Jiang Wen, who is on the main international jury, will travel to France early so that the medical test can be completed well in time.

Ms. Cayla felt that the final number of Asians at the Festival could go down because of the fear of the impending inconvenience.

Although press reports here talk of medical tests at the French airports, this correspondent who arrived from New Delhi the other day found nothing of the kind happening at Paris' Charles de Gaulle terminal. Was it all because of the WHO's clean chit to India? One can never tell.

The same press reports also talk about such checks being in place at Nice, the airport for Cannes, though no flights from Asia arrive there non-stop. This "scare" may well be yet another classic case of media-hype.

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