Marco Bellocchio, Alba Rohrwacher and Matteo Garrone are among hundreds of Italian cinema professionals who have signed an open letter calling on the Venice Film Festival to acknowledge the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The signatories, who also include international professionals, have gathered under the banner of V4P (Venice4Palestine).
In a long open letter, the signatories urged the Venice Film Festival, its parent body, the Biennale, and the independent parallel sections of Venice Days and the International Critics’ Week, “to be more courageous and clear in condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing across Palestine carried out by the Israeli government and army.”
The 82nd Venice Film Festival kicks off on August 27, six weeks shy of the third anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks on Southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in the taking of 251 hostages.
At least 61,000 people living in the Gaza Strip have died in Israel’s subsequent military campaign aimed at wiping out Hamas and recovering the hostages. Israel has said accusations of genocide are “baseless” because the country is not acting with “intent.”
“As the spotlight turns on the Venice Film Festival, we’re in danger of going through yet another major event that remains indifferent to this human, civil, and political tragedy. “The show must go on,” we are told, as we’re urged to look away — as if the “film world” had nothing to do with the “real world.”
“The Biennale and the Venice International Film Festival are supposed to celebrate the power of art as a means of transformation, testimony, representation of humanity, and development of critical consciousness. It is precisely this that makes art an extraordinary vehicle for reflection, active participation and resistance,” read the letter.
