Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released last November
(Picture: AP)The French defence minister has criticised Marvel for their “false” depiction of its armed forces in the latest Black Panther film.
Sebastian Lecornu, France’s youngest cabinet minister at 36, hit out at the representation of his nation’s soldiers as rapacious looters in the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda in the second instalment of the superhero franchise.
Je condamne fermement cette représentation mensongère et trompeuse de nos forces Armées.
— Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) February 12, 2023
Je pense et rends hommage aux 58 soldats français qui sont morts en défendant le Mali à sa demande face aux groupes terroristes islamistes. https://t.co/KpnFIcatPt
"I strongly condemn this false and deceptive representation of our armed forces," Mr Lecornu wrote on Twitter.
His comment came in response to a series of tweets by Jean Bexon, a French journalist who has often written about what he calls the “anti-French” sentiment of the film and its director Ryan Coogler.
Calling the storyline "propaganda", Mr Bexon claims that the soldiers in the film are dressed identically to the French soldiers who mounted the anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane to combat jihadist groups in the Sahel region and who withdrew from Mali last year.
"The Marvel/Disney production took care to equip the ‘French-speaking paratrooper mercenaries’ with outfits worn by our soldiers in Mali. Those who play the role of the bad guys are thus dressed like our soldiers from the Serval/ Barkhane operations," Mr Bexon tweeted.
Parts of the film are also set in Ansongo, Mali, where French armed forces intervened.
"France is clearly designated as a nation wanting to monopolise Wakandan resources in the outpost located in Ansongo, in the Gao region of Mali," Mr Bexon said.
In a statement, the French defence ministry told the Associated Foreign Press that it is not calling for censorship of the film.
But it added that "no revisionism can be allowed about France’s recent actions in Mali: we intervened at the county’s own request to fight armed terrorist groups, far from the story told in the film, namely a French army coming to pillage natural resources.”
