Promtiaonal material for Parasite Photo: Courtesy of Maoyan Below: The Netflix logo Photo: IC

A French man of North African origin has accused Netflix of racial discrimination for labeling him a radical Islamist in an action movie for which he was filmed without his knowledge, his lawyer said Monday.

Sentinelle, set in the southern city of Nice, tells the story of an elite French soldier returning from service in Syria who embarks on a mission to find the man who raped her sister.

One scene shows the protagonist, Klara, looking through the sights of her rifle at two young friends saying goodbye to each other.

The scene was shot on the Promenade des Anglais, the seaside walk where a Tunisian radical mowed down 86 people with a truck on July 14, 2016.

The French subtitles Netflix provided to describe the scene for the hard of hearing refer to two young barbus - a derogatory term for ultraconservative Muslim men that means "the bearded ones."

One of the men, a 21-year-old electrician from Nice, filed a criminal complaint against Netflix, accusing the company of "provoking discrimination and racial hatred," his lawyer Jean-Pascal Padovani said.

"The director took the liberty of drawing a line between the North African features of the people he filmed... and religious fundamentalists," Padovani said.

AFP