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Roman Polanski says activists threatening him 'with a public lynching' after awards nomination backlash

Roman Polanski poses during a photocall prior to the screening of his movie 'Based on a true story' at the Cinematheque in Paris on 30 October, 2017: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images
Roman Polanski poses during a photocall prior to the screening of his movie 'Based on a true story' at the Cinematheque in Paris on 30 October, 2017: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images

Roman Polanski, the film director and fugitive who is wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, has said that “activists are threatening me with a public lynching.”

The comments arrive after his latest film, An Officer and a Spy, was controversially nominated for 12 César Awards (often called the “French Oscars”).

Posters and graffiti denouncing the director were plastered over the theatre where the César ceremony will take place.

The Macbeth director plead guilty to “unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor” in 1977 but fled the US to avoid sentencing. In November 2019, an actress named Valentine Monnier accused Polanski of raping her in 1975, when she was 18 years old. Polanski has "absolutely denied" the allegations.

“Fantasies of sick minds are now treated as established facts”, he said, in a statement made to AFP announcing he would not be attending the ceremony.

French actor Adèle​ Haenel (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) had criticised the César Awards body for honouring Polanski.

“Distinguishing Polanski is spitting in the face of all victims,” said Haenel. “It means raping women isn’t that bad.”

“What place can there be in such deplorable conditions for a film about the defence of truth, the fight for justice, blind hate and anti-Semitism?” Polanski asked, referring to An Officer and a Spy. His 22nd feature film, about the Dreyfus affair, has been a surprise box office hit in France.