Venice Film Festival to open under shadow of Gaza conflict

With just hours to go before the opening of the 82nd Venice Film Festival in Italy, the glamour is, for now, giving way to the reality of the war and ongoing massacres in the Gaza Strip.

The mobilization, which culminated in an open letter from Venice4Palestine that collected more than 1,500 signatures from Italian and international artists, journalists and activists, had its first "official" effect today: the speech at the pre-opening ceremony by Bishop Nandino Capovilla, parish priest of Marghera and former coordinator of Pax Christi, who was stopped at Tel Aviv airport and expelled from Israel on August 12.

The director of the mega-event, Alberto Barbera, said that the decision was a necessary choice in a moment in which "we find ourselves powerless in the face of a massacre that we cannot justify in the slightest."

The priest emphasized that what is happening in the Palestinian enclave "can be stopped," but "we are not doing it, or not enough."

"We can stop sending weapons to Israel, we can persuade it to respect the law and allow UN agencies, coordinated by OCHA, to return to help an exhausted population; we can realize that, until the occupation ends, it is absurd and hypocritical to repeat the refrain of 'two peoples, two states,'" the cleric declared.

Capovilla was introduced by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Biennale. "I walked the streets of Catania and found a piece of writing that made me think and caused me pain. The text I saw said that you don't stay quiet, you don't stay silent only when children are sleeping, and you start screaming, talking, and making noise when children die," he said.

It remains to be seen whether the Gaza protests will also reach the red carpet of the opening ceremony or even the theater, on a day that will feature Paolo Sorrentino, who was greeted by a crowd of photographers. The filmmaker will open the competition with the first of five Italian films competing for the Golden Lion: "La Grazia."

In the film, Sorrentino reunites with the actor who best embodied his visions and obsessions, Toni Servillo, who plays the role of a president of the Republic at the end of his term and who faces dilemmas in deciding between two requests for pardon.

The film will be screened at the end of the opening ceremony, hosted this year by Emanuela Fanelli. The versatile actress, winner of two David di Donatello awards, will also give a brief speech, but has already stated that there will be no direct reference to Gaza.

"I'm all for drawing attention to what's happening at a time when the spotlight is on the Lido. The ceremony will be brief, and I'll give a quick speech. Presenting this topic would mean reducing it to one or two sentences, and I didn't think that was right," the artist explained in an interview with ANSA.

Cinema, in fact, will be highlighted with the awarding of the first of the two Golden Lions of this edition (the other will be for Kim Novak), granted to Werner Herzog, author of masterpieces such as Fitzcarraldo, who will receive the award's laudatory speech from another master of cinema, Francis Ford Coppola.

The long day will also open the parallel competition of Orizzonti, with "Mother", by the Macedonian Teona Strugar Mitevska, an unconventional portrait of an episode in the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, played by Noomi Rapace.