BRUSSELS (Reuters) - As Belgium's best-known
reporter prepares himself for the silver screen, uncomfortable
questions remain as to whether it is just his plus fours and quiff
that need to be given a makeover.
Film director Steven Spielberg's "The Secret of the
Unicorn" is a tale of sunken ships and treasure which
highlights Tintin as a swashbuckling hero ready to take on any
villain.
It is expected to be the first in a trilogy of Tintin movies.
However, an altogether different aspect of the reporter is
attracting attention in his home country of Belgium.
In Brussels, an increasingly heated court case is
unfolding, brought by a Congo-born student who argues that one of
the cartoon albums, "Tintin in the Congo," is racist
and should be banned or at least carry a warning on its cover.
"We say there is a work which shows the superiority of one race
over another. This is inadmissible," said lawyer Papis Tshimpangila
who is taking part in the case.
The English language version of the album has been prefaced with a
warning asking readers to see it within the context of its
time.
Book shop Borders took it out of its children's section in 2007
in Britain and the United States following a
recommendation from the Commission for Racial
Equality.
"We need to end the discrimination between people who speak English
and people who speak French," said Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu, who has
personally financed the legal bid in Belgium since it started in
2007.
"Even if I sell my shoes and all of my furniture, I think that the
result is more important than material possessions," he told
reporters outside a court in Brussels earlier this month.
Moulinsart, the foundation which holds the Tintin copyright, has
refused to place a warning on the 1931 book, saying there are many
works that could be accused of discrimination.
"We think it's not necessary to add such a warning. We would gladly
do it if you put such a warning on Jules Verne's
novels, Charles Dickens' novels," said a
spokesman.
Georges Remi, commonly known under his pen name Herge, has also
been accused of anti-Semitism.
"Herge's drawings were part of a widespread European tradition of
'soft' anti-Semitism. Everything about Herge's personality suggests
that he would have been consumed with remorse had he been aware of
the fate of the Jews he caricatured," Moulinsart said.
He contributed cartoons to Belgium's Le Soir newspaper, one of the
few papers authorized by the German occupiers
during World War Two.
"One cannot deny that certain albums are anti-Semitic and one
cannot deny that the 1930s albums were blatantly colonialist and
racist in the sense that colonialism was racist," said Laurence
Grove, an academic at the University of Glasgow and prominent
"Tintinologist."
"But when we look at the later albums such as
1960's Tintin in Tibet, his attitudes have
changed completely," said Grove.
He noted that other fictional heroes such as James
Bond have evolved dramatically over the past few
decades as public opinion has changed.
"Tintin evolves in the same way and I'm sure that the Spielberg
film of Tintin can do the same sort of job on this... I suspect
he'll be running around using gadgets and saving the world. I
suspect the nasty bits will be etched out," said Grove.
(Editing by Steve Addison)