More than 350 international filmmakers and actors have signed an open letter accusing Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza, timed to coincide with the opening of the Cannes Film Festival.
The signatories – including directors Pedro Almodóvar, Alfonso Cuarón and David Cronenberg, and actors Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, Viggo Mortensen and Ralph Fiennes – condemned the killing of the 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.
Hassona was the central figure in Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a documentary selected for screening at Cannes as part of its ACID programme. The strike that killed her, along with ten members of her family, came the day after the film’s selection was announced. Festival organisers said the documentary is intended to “honour her memory”.
“We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” the letter reads. “We are ashamed of such passivity.”
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
The statement accuses the Israeli army of “targeting civilians” and claims over 200 journalists have been “deliberately killed”. It also refers to the March detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, who was allegedly attacked by settlers and arrested by the IDF before being released following international pressure.
The letter goes on to urge the film industry to break its silence. “What is the point of our professions if not to draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed, if we are not present to protect oppressed voices?”
The publication of the letter comes as the Cannes Film Festival opens with an official day of programming dedicated to Ukraine. Three films highlighting the country’s war with Russia will be shown on “Ukraine Day”, including two documentaries featuring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. No comparable programme for Gaza has been scheduled.
The signatories also accused cultural institutions of silence and complicity, saying far-right “colonial” forces were waging “a battle on the battlefield of ideas”.
Critics of the letter have pointed to its omission of Hamas’s 7 October massacre and the lack of any reference to the hostages still held in Gaza.
