Cannes 2023: Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour to Lose Festival Slot Over Allegations of Harassment Towards Its Female Cast and Crew Members

French director Catherine Corsini, who was supposed to be the seventh female director at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival has now been subject to review for her slot due to complaints. The slot for the movie Le Retour in the competition is now kept on hold as the numerous inappropriate events related to the movie have gained attention. According to Variety, a US-based media house, On April 13 the Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux confirmed to the director that she would have a competition slot, but as the time of the announcement came, the festival's administration board decided to hold off on giving the title a slot in the lineup. Cannes 2023: Anurag Kashyap's Kennedy Gets Official Selection for Upcoming Film Festival.

The decision came after the news of Corsini being accused of harassment of team members and crew members allegedly involved in inappropriate acts against two female actors surfaced. Fremaux said, "administration board wished to gather more information about the situation around the film before taking a decision on whether to include the film in its Official Selection." To give a reason behind removing the movie from the festival.

As per a report by Variety the producer of the movie Elisabeth Perez defended the scenario by stating the information as "malevolent rumours, and these allegations should not lead to the life or death of a film. Nor should they take away its right to be selected for Cannes". An incident from the sets involved an org called the CCHSCT, whose task is to prevent violence, harassment and sexism on shoots. The organisation inspected the production of Le Retour following complaints and alerted the general attorney. Cannes Film Festival 2023: Leonardo DiCaprio’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones 5 to Premiere at the Grand Event.

National Film Center, (CNC), mentioned another incident about a scene of a sexual nature featuring the 15-year-old female protagonist of the film was added to the script and allegedly filmed without the consent of the Commission des Enfants du Spectacle, a government-backed organization. The CNC said it "has decided, considering the failure in respecting the social obligations of the production, to withdraw its subsidies" for the film. CNC also decided to cut over the subsidies but also gave some sort of relief as it never wanted the to crew get robbed of their pay for the work on sets of the film.

Le Retour is a story of Kheididja, a woman looking after the children of a wealthy family during a summer in Corsica. The job allows Kheididja to return to the island with her own daughters after fleeing it 15 years prior under tragic circumstances. The movie stamps Corsini's follow-up to The Divide which competed at Cannes in 2021 and won a Cesar award for supporting actor Aissatou Diallo Sagna.