Yoona (SNSD) sues Cannes Film Festival for 100,000 euros for racism allegations against security guards

Yoona was not the only one to experience this.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival, which closed at the end of last month, was embroiled in a legal battle over a security guard who displayed an overly racist attitude towards participants of colour. The security guard was the one who recently showed racist attitude towards YoonA, a member and actress of the group Girls‘ Generation, and was the one who caused internet users’ dismay.

On the 31st (local time), according to reports from the BBC and other foreign news agencies, Sawa Pontiiska, a Ukrainian model and fashion TV presenter, recently filed a lawsuit against the Cannes Film Festival office. Sawa Pontiiska claimed that she was violently stopped on the red carpet by this bodyguard. She filed a lawsuit against the organisers for 100,000 euros in damages, claiming that she was ‘physically assaulted and suffered psychological damage and my reputation was also damaged by the bodyguard who violently stood in my way’. She also uploaded a video on her social networking site saying that she was looking for a lawyer.

The incident of rough guarding, she claimed, occurred on the 21st May last month while Sawa Pontiiska was posing for reporters at a red carpet event at the entrance to the Grand Théâtre Lumière in Cannes, France, where the Cannes Film Festival was being held. A security guard stopped her and tried to rush her into the theatre, and when Pontiiska resisted during this process, the guard was caught holding her by the waist and trying to pull her in by force of arms. Pontiiska also rocked her body and sat down in her seat during this process. In fact, an eyewitness video of the scene was referred to more than 16 million views on social networking sites such as X (formerly Twitter), causing controversy and controversy. Pontiiska explained the purpose of the lawsuit, saying that they had contacted the organisers and requested an apology, but had received no response.

The security guard in question, who filed the lawsuit, was the party who excessively prevented Younha from attending the Cannes Film Festival red carpet event on the 19th Masy last month and caused a racism controversy. In addition to Yoona, the security guard also caused friction with Kelly Rowland, from the US girl group Destiny Child, and Dominican actress Mashiell Taveras. The fact that all of the excessively sanctioned participants were of a coloured race led to racist accusations. Indeed, Kelly Rowland expressed her discomfort by saying, "There were [white] women who didn't look like me on the red carpet, but they were never scolded [by the relevant security personnel], pushed or told to walk away."