SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain: American actress Angelina Jolie said Sunday she no longer recognizes her country, voicing concern over threats to free expression while presenting her latest film at Spain’s San Sebastián film festival.
Her comments come as worries grow over free speech in the United States, after President Donald Trump’s crackdown on critical media and the recent suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show over comments on the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
“I love my country, but I don’t at this time recognize my country,” Jolie said when asked if she feared for freedom of speech in the United States.
“Anything, anywhere, that divides or, of course, limits personal expressions and freedoms and, from anyone, I think is very dangerous,” she added.
“These are very, very heavy times we’re all living in together.”
Jolie, 50, was in San Sebastian to promote “Couture,” directed by French filmmaker Alice Winocour, which is competing for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Shell.
She plays Maxine Walker, an American film director facing divorce and a serious illness while navigating Paris Fashion Week and embarking on a romance with a colleague, played by French actor Louis Garrel.
The Oscar-winning actress — honored in 1999 for her role in “Girl, Interrupted” — said she related personally to the struggles of her latest character.
Jolie underwent a double mastectomy in 2013 and later had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce her high genetic risk of cancer, which claimed the lives of her mother and grandmother.
Visibly moved, she said she thought often of her mother while making the film.
“I wish she was able to speak more as openly as I have been, and have people respond as graciously as you have, and not feel as alone,” Jolie said.
“There’s something very particular to women’s cancers, because obviously it affects us, you know, how we feel as women,” she added.
‘I don’t recognize my country,’ says Angelina Jolie
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‘I don’t recognize my country,’ says Angelina Jolie
- The American actress was responding to a query on Trump's crackdown on critical media
- Jolie was in Spain to promote her latest film, “Couture, at the San Sebastián film festival
Not Italy’s Devil’s Island: Sardinia bristles at mafia inmate plan
- A third of top-risk mafia prisoners could go to Sardinia
- Officials say clans may follow relatives and infiltrate economy
NUORO: In Nuoro, a remote city on the Italian island of Sardinia, a high stone wall rings the local prison, a fortress-like complex once renowned for holding high-profile mobsters and convicted terrorists far from the mainland.
Only a handful of top mafiosi remain detained there and Sardinia is no longer seen as a dumping ground for criminals, instead building an international reputation around tourism.
But that could change under a plan of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government which has alarmed residents. In December, a justice undersecretary said about 750 prisoners held under the rigid “41bis” regime would be concentrated in just a few dedicated facilities across Italy, overseen by special guard units to improve security.
Sardinia has been told it may get nearly a third of them, split between Sassari in the north, already housing about 90, the capital Cagliari, where around 90 are due to arrive this month, and Nuoro — reviving old stigma concerns.
“Sardinia does not deserve to be seen as Italy’s Cayenne,” said Governor Alessandra Todde, invoking the notorious former French Guiana penal colony on Devil’s Island.
Worries of Mafia infiltration
Italy’s 41bis regime, named after the law that regulates it, is among the most restrictive in Europe. Introduced in 1992 after the murder of anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, it imposes near-total isolation on prisoners and was designed to stop bosses running their operations from behind bars.
The law says it should “preferably” be enforced on Italy’s islands. The late boss of the Sicilian mafia, Salvatore “Toto” Riina, was among those once held in Sardinia.
Locals and authorities fear the government plan could prompt mafia clans to move from mainland Italy to be near jailed relatives, creating opportunities to launder illicit money and infiltrate business, particularly in less developed areas, such as Nuoro, a city of 30,000 people.
Silvio Lai, a Sardinian lawmaker with the opposition Democratic Party, visited the city prison last month and said renovation work was already ongoing, potentially making room for at least 30 new maximum-security inmates.
“Weak economies can be infiltrated easily, and Nuoro is about an hour’s drive from the Costa Smeralda,” Lai said, suggesting a mafia foothold in the city could swiftly spread to the island’s luxurious tourist resort.
The Justice Ministry did not respond to a request to comment on the work.
Improving national security
Autonomous mafia groups have never emerged in sparsely populated Sardinia, but magistrates say investigations have been opened into alleged clan penetration in the north of the island, possibly encouraged by the presence of detained mobsters.
“Prosecutors are keeping a close watch on the phenomenon of Camorra (a mafia group based around Naples) investments... especially in the tourism, hospitality and restaurant sectors,” said Cagliari chief prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio.
At a December meeting with regional officials, Justice Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove downplayed the risk of a mass move to Sardinia, minutes show, arguing that families of 41bis detainees do not typically leave clan-controlled areas.
“This (plan) will ensure greater national security... will make individual prisons safer because only specialized prison guard units will be deployed,” Delmastro said.
However, Maria Cristina Ornano, head of the sentence enforcement tribunal in Cagliari, said police and the judiciary will need increased security resources if more mobsters arrive.
“Once organized crime takes root here, we will not be able to get rid of it. We can see it in parts of southern Italy, which are among the most
