London - AFP
British cinemas are warning viewers about a new Argentine film which shows a chief steward intentionally crashing a plane -- a scene bearing eery similarities to last week's Germanwings tragedy.
"Following the Germanwings flight incident on Tuesday 24th March, please be aware that 'Wild Tales' features a sequence that some customers might find disturbing," the Curzon cinema chain said on its website.
The British Film Institute issued a similar warning saying: "Please note: 'Wild Tales' is a work of fiction, and any similarities with real events is an unintentional and regrettable coincidence."
The film by Argentine director Damian Szifron is about the fine line between civility and barbarism.
It came out last Friday in Britain -- three days after the Germanwings crash in the Alps on February 24.
Prosecutors have said they suspect co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who told his bosses he had suffered from severe depression, locked himself into the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane.
The plane slammed into a mountain at 700 kilometres (430 miles) an hour, instantly killing all 150 people on board.
"Wild Tales" is co-produced by Spain's Pedro Almodovar and begins with a scene in which the chief steward locks himself in the cockpit to crash the plane.
"It begins with a brief, savage revenge tale set on an airplane (horribly timely in fact, given this week’s air disaster in France)," Time Out magazine said.
Film critic Mark Kermode wrote in The Observer newspaper: "The results are shocking and sharp as a knife, but be warned -– the unfolding real-life tragedy in the Alps casts a grim unforeseen shadow over the opening segment."
Documentary filmmaker James Jones took to Twitter to give his reaction to seeing the scene: "That first scene on the plane is horribly unfortunate... Made me feel a bit sick."