Greta Thunberg Faces Empty Hall at Zurich Film Festival After Ticket Sabotage

Greta Thunberg faced an unusually sparse crowd at the Zurich Film Festival after a coordinated campaign of fake ticket bookings left nearly 260 empty seats in a hall designed for 300 attendees.

The incident occurred during a screening of the documentary My Home of Wind and Sand, directed by Patrick Vallée. The film follows Najla Mohamed Lamin, a Sahrawi activist born and raised in refugee camps in southwestern Algeria, who advocates for human rights and self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.

Suspicion of Sabotage

According to German news outlet Merkur, all free tickets for the event were snapped up within a short time through the online booking system. However, when the discussion began, it became clear that the overwhelming majority of those who had reserved spots failed to show up, leaving only about 40 people in the Corso 2 cinema hall.

Thunberg and members of the film crew voiced suspicions that this was not a coincidence, but rather a targeted campaign of fake reservations designed to block attendance. Thunberg suggested that state actors or entities loyal to the Moroccan government might have orchestrated the move. The Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported that Thunberg told attendees it was "obvious what happened."

Festival Response

Zurich Film Festival organizers confirmed that they had noticed unusual patterns in the ticketing system prior to the event, prompting them to limit bookings to four tickets per user.

"We regret the low attendance, but we cannot definitively determine whether this was a coordinated disruption or simply a high rate of no-shows for a free event," the organizers stated.

Thunberg attended the festival to support Lamin and the Sahrawi cause, urging the international community to pay closer attention to the conflict and its environmental stakes.