Emmanuelle Beart refuses to be cowed by her tsunami critics

French actress Emmanuelle Beart (pictured) was forced onto the back foot yesterday at the Venice Film Festival when journalists asked her to defend her latest film Vinyan, which begins with a terrifying re-creation of the 2004 tsunami. The film stars Beart and British actor Rufus Sewell as a couple who lose their son in the disaster but refuse to believe he is dead. The Times newspaper this week quoted a couple who lost a daughter in the tidal wave as saying that to turn tragedy into entertainment so soon was "outrageous".

"The story is that they lost their son," Beart told the assembled
journalists. "It happened in the tsunami but it happens in other ways and elsewhere, so I don't want to justify myself." While she admitted she was affected by her role, she felt that Sewell was more so. "I saw that at one point he was on the edge. Maybe he wouldn't like me to say it, but I saw it in his eyes."