Pedro Almodovar, Susan Sarandon, Richard Gere... denounce the "silence" in the face of the "genocide" in Gaza
380 film personalities co-signed an article in Libération a few hours before the opening of the Cannes Film Festival.
Several stars of world cinema, including Pedro Almodovar, Susan Sarandon , and Richard Gere, denounced the "silence" of the cultural world in the face of the "genocide" in Gaza, in an op-ed published in Tuesday's edition of the French daily Libération, for the opening of the Cannes Film Festival.
"We artists and cultural actors cannot remain silent while a genocide is underway in Gaza," states the text co-signed by some 380 artists, including two-time Palme d'Or winner Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, Canadian director David Cronenberg , and Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
Their column pays tribute to Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, killed in an Israeli bombing in mid-April and the heroine of a documentary scheduled for the Cannes Film Festival, which opens Tuesday. "Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed by the same Israeli strike," the column explains.
According to one of the groups behind the text, contacted by AFP, the president of the Cannes jury, French actress Juliette Binoche, was initially among the signatories, but her name does not appear among the 34 personalities revealed in the Libération edition.
Such passivity shames us . Why does cinema, a breeding ground for socially engaged works, seem to be uninterested in the horror of reality, in the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers?The forum also expresses concern about the Academy's "lack of support" when Palestinian Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli settlers at the end of March, a few days after winning an Oscar for his documentary No Other Land . "Such passivity shames us . Why does cinema, a breeding ground for socially engaged works, seem to be uninterested in the horror of reality, in the oppression suffered by our colleagues?" they ask, calling for action "for all those who die in indifference . " "Cinema must carry their messages," they write.
The war in Gaza was sparked by the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7, 2023, by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Israeli reprisals have left at least 52,862 dead in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to data released Sunday by the Hamas Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN. Several international NGOs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, claim that Israel has committed acts of "genocide" in Gaza, an accusation rejected by the Israeli state, which denounces "baseless lies."
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