Cannes hit by power sabotage as film festival draws to a close
CANNES: Suspected vandalism knocked out power to the French Riviera town Cannes on the final day of its film festival on Saturday, but organisers said the show would go on at their glitzy closing ceremony.
A suspected arson attack on a local substation and the sabotage of an electricity pylon along the coast were blamed for the more than five-hour outage.
Festival goers and tourists were left scrambling for paper money during the black-out, which left cash machines out-of-order and restaurants unable to process card payments.
The festival said it had "switched to an alternative electricity power supply, which enables us to maintain the events and screenings planned for today in normal conditions, including the closing ceremony".
Inside its headquarters, journalists dressed up in black tie and headed to the the red carpet for the closing ceremony where French actor Juliette Binoche and her jury will hand out awards, including the Palme d'Or for best film.
The best-reviewed contenders include Iranian director Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just an Accident" and Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa's study of despotism in "Two Prosecutors", according to analysis from Screen magazine.
But cinema bible Variety predicted a triumph for Norwegian director Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value", a moving tale about a quietly fractured family starring Elle Fanning.
It received an extraordinary 19-minute standing ovation after its premiere on Thursday.
Rave-themed road trip movie "Sirat" by Franco-Spanish director Oliver Laxe also has many cheerleaders on Cannes famed Croisette sea-front boulevard.
Power was being restored to Cannes by the middle of the afternoon, with traffic lights blinking back into life after they went blank at around 10:00 am (08:00 GMT).
Local officials said a suspected arson attack on the substation about 12 kilometres (seven miles) northwest of central Cannes had caused a major fire at around 02:00 am.
Firefighters in seven different vehicles required five hours to extinguish the flames, the officials said.
Along the coast in the opposite direction, a pylon which carries a high-voltage line was discovered with three of its four legs damaged, the local prosecutor's office announced. — AFP
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