More than 350 figures from the cinema world, including Hollywood stars Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, condemned ‘genocide’ in Gaza in an open letter published Monday on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival.
“We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” read the letter initiated by several pro-Palestinian activist groups and published in the French newspaper Liberation and the US magazine Variety.
The signatories, which include acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and former Cannes winner Ruben Ostlund, decried the death of Gazan photojournalist Fatima Hassouna.
Hassouna, 25, is the subject of a documentary which will premiere in Cannes on Thursday by Iranian director Sepideh Farsi, titled ‘Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk’.
Hassouna was killed along with 10 relatives in an Israeli air strike on her family home in northern Gaza last month, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.
Farsi welcomed the impact of her film but called on Cannes Festival organisers to denounce Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the devastated Palestinian territory.
“There needs to be a real statement,” she told AFP. “Saying ‘the festival isn’t political’ makes no sense.”
This year’s Cannes jury president, Juliette Binoche, was initially said by organisers to have signed the petition, but her spokeswoman told AFP she had not endorsed it and her name was not published by Liberation.
Other signatories include Jonathan Glazer, the British director of Jewish origin who won an Oscar for his 2023 Auschwitz drama ‘The Zone of Interest’, as well as US star Mark Ruffalo and Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
War programming
The Cannes Festival kicks off Tuesday on the French Riviera, with an opening ceremony headlined by Robert De Niro and three films showing the devastation of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
