The Gaza humanitarian crisis loomed large at the Venice Film Festival closing ceremony as multiple winners called for an end to the Israeli military campaign in the Palestinian territory.
The situation there has been a hot button topic throughout the 82nd edition of the Venice, which unfolded just six weeks shy of the second anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks on Southern Israel on October 7 2023, 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, while aid agencies have warned of a looming “a man-made” famine, with at least 132,000 children under five-years-old expected to suffer from acute malnutrition.
Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania was the most outspoken as she received the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize for The Voice of Hind Rajab.
The film about the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was in a car with family members which was fired on by Israeli forces at they tried to flee Gaza City in early 2024, rocked the festival earlier in the week, receiving a record-breaking 23 minutes and 40 second ovations.
Kaouther Ben Hania’s acceptance speech for the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize for her Gaza-set film #TheVoiceOfHindRajab at the #VeniceFilmFestival: “Cinema cannot bring Hind back nor can it erase the atrocity committed towards her. Nothing can restore what was taken. But, cinema… pic.twitter.com/DrLIICUDCe
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“I dedicate this world to the Palestinian Red Crescent and to all those who have risked everything to save lives in Gaza. They are real heroes. The voice of Hind is the voice of Gaza itself, a cry for rescue the entire world could hear, yet no one answered,” said Ben Hania.
“Her voice will continue to echo until accountability is real until justice is served. We all believe in the force of cinema. It’s what gathers us here tonight and what gives us the courage to tell stories that might otherwise be buried. Cinema cannot bring Hind back. Nor can it erase the atrocity committed against her. Nothing can ever restore what was taken,” she continued.
“But cinema can preserve her voice, make it resonate across borders, because her story is not hers alone. It is tragically the story of an entire people enduring genocide inflicted by a criminal Israeli regime that acts with impunity,” she added.
Ben Hania raised the plight of Hind Rajab’s mother Wissam Hamada and brother Eiyad, who remain in Gaza.
“This story is not only about memory it’s about urgency. Their lives remain in danger, as do the lives of countless mothers, fathers and children who wake up every day under the same sky of fear, hunger and bombardment. I urge the leaders of the world to save them. Their survival is not a matter of charity. It is a matter of justice, of humanity, of the minimum that the world owes to them. I also call for an end of this unbearable situation. Enough is enough.”
A number of other winners made similar appeals across the night including Italy’s Toni Servillo, who won Best Actor for his performance in La Grazia; Silent Friend co-star Luna Wedler, who won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor, and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani who won the Audience Award for Calle Malaga.
“The joy I feel is profound but so is the pain I feel as I receive this award today,” said Touzani. “I feel pain because like many others I cannot forget the horror inflicted with such impunity and every second on the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine.”
“As a mother today, I consider myself even more fortunate to simply be able to look at my child as I speak,” continued the director, whose son was in the auditorium. “For how many mothers have been made childless, how many children have been motherless, fatherless, have lost everything. How many more until this horror is brought to an end. Yes, we wipe our tears and keep going, but we refuse to lose our humanity. I must say I am proud and honored to be part of a festival that has been so engaged.”
Thousands of people, made up mainly of local political and grassroot groups, gathered on the Lido on the first Saturday of the festival, to stage a peaceful protest denouncing what they described as Israeli genocide in Gaza.
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