Netflix Faces Lawsuit After Man Mistakenly Portrayed as Terrorist in Film

The film "Sentinel" is a hit on Netflix but could be detrimental to Rami Sahli, a 22-year-old electrician. In a scene, a soldier assigned to the Sentinel operation (an operation launched in France to deal with the terrorist threat, editor’s note) in Nice after a mission in Syria targeted "two young bearded men with backpacks who shake hands and separate." It is the young Maghrebi and one of his colleagues.

In a statement to Nice-Matin, Rami Sahli claims to have been filmed without his knowledge and that he discovered this after receiving about 80 messages informing him of his presence in the film. "The audio description calls me bearded. I have nothing to do with Islamism, terrorism. The scene is shot at the very place of the Nice attack," he indignantly says.

The young man expresses his astonishment: "I don’t understand how the director can make me out to be a terrorist. Just because I’m Maghrebi? Because I have a backpack? And what? Am I going to commit an attack because I have a backpack and I’m Maghrebi? Is it more suspenseful, more money? Is that the goal?"

Rami has filed a complaint against Netflix for public incitement to discrimination and racial hatred, for violation of the right to image. The platform tried to correct the situation by modifying the audio description. The young Maghrebi is hardly satisfied. He wants it to remove his image from the film and the trailer.