Over 350 film figures, including Greek directors Yorgos Lanthimos and Costa-Gavras, denounced “genocide” in Gaza in an open letter Monday ahead of the Cannes Festival. “We cannot stay silent,” said the letter, backed by pro-Palestinian groups.
“We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” read the letter, published in Libération and Variety, which Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon also signed.
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 organizers 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 organizers 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.
The Cannes Festival kicked 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.
Two documentaries featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a third film shot on the brutal frontlines of Europe’s biggest war in 80 years are to be screened on a “Ukraine Day” of programming.
It is “a reminder of the commitment of artists, authors and journalists to tell the story of this conflict in the heart of Europe”, the festival said.
Nothing similar has been planned for the war in Gaza, but the film on Hassouna is set to “honour” her memory, organisers have said previously.
Gazan filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser are also set to showcase their fiction feature set in 2007 in the Palestinian territory in one of the secondary sections of the festival.
Related: Yorgos Lanthimos, Costa-Gavras Join Campaign to Save Historic Cinemas in Athens
