Opened Tomorrow, Artists Demand Venice International Film Festival Firmly Against Genocide In Gaza

JAKARTA - Hundreds of Italian and international film professionals signed an open letter urging the "82nd Venice International Film Festival", which opens Wednesday to recognize the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

The signatories, including director Matteo Garrone, Abel Ferrara, and Ken Loach, organize themselves under the auspices of Venice4Palestinine (V4P).

In the letter, they urged the festival and its parent, La Biennale in Venezia, "to be bolder and firmer in condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing across Palestine carried out by the Israeli government and army," quoted by the Daily Sabah on August 26.

"Stop the clock, turn off the stars," the letter opened, urging the festival not to become a "sad and empty show" but rather a "place of dialogue, active participation, and resistance, as has happened in the past."

Palestinian filmmakers Arab Nasser androy Nasser who won the best director award in the Un Certain Regard Cannes category earlier this year with the film "Once Upon a Time in Gaza" also signed the letter.

Biennale responded with a statement stating that the Biennale and the Venice Festival "always, throughout its history, became places of open discussion and sensitivity to all the most pressing issues facing society and the world."

The V4P letter comes amid growing international criticism of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and its recent approval of a controversial settlement project in the West Bank.

The grassroots Association and political groups from the Veneto region and throughout Italy also organized a demonstration on August 30 calling for "the end of genocide in Palestine by Israel and to denounce the involvement of Western governments."

The demonstration is scheduled to gather in Venice Lido before marching to the festival site.

Gaza's Ministry of Health on Monday confirmed that the death toll from Israeli aggression since October 2023 had reached 52,744 people, while the injured reached 158,259 people, quoted from WAFA.

This figure includes 300 people who died from coconut and malnutrition, of which 117 were children. Meanwhile, the number of journalists who died in the Palestinian enclave has reached 246 people.