PARIS, May 25: Morocco’s King Mohamed has sent his personal adviser to Cannes to announce the holding of a film festival in his country in September.

According to Mr Andre Azoulay, who is the highest-ranking adviser to King Mohamed VI, as he was previously to his father Hassan II, “the Marrakech film festival wants to bring to the world a message of tolerance and openness”.

In announcing the holding of this year’s Marrakech festival, said Mr Azoulay, King Mohamed VI “wants to send a message to the world that you can be a country, like Morocco, which is Arabic and Islamic, be part of the same Middle Eastern sphere of influence as Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Jordan, and all the while be a country that is open, modern, tolerant and convivial”.

As a result, noted Mr Azoulay, “King Mohammed VI has decided to accord the Marrakech film festival the financial means necessary to allow it to speak in the name of the Arab and Islamic world, also to assure its longevity. For, he believes that it’s much more culture than ideology that is capable of persuading men of the value of such ideals as mutual respect.”

Agencies add: “Divine Intervention”, an imaginative and witty movie about Palestinian lovers trying to live their lives under Israeli military restrictions, was Saturday awarded a prize on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival.

The picture, by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, was given the honour by the International Federation of the Cinematographic Press, grouping several respected critics.