Tuesday, May 13`, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 37
AFP: 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 (May 12) 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 (May 15) by Iranian director Sepideh Farsi, titled “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk”.
Farsi welcomed the impact of her film but called on Cannes Festival organisers to denounce Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the devastated Palestinian territory.
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.
