A group of Italian political and grassroots organisations held a demonstration in front of the Venice Film Festival red carpet calling for an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza, ahead of the festival’s opening ceremony this evening.
The demonstration, attended by around 30 people, looked to publicise a march that will take place at the festival on Saturday (August 30), from Santa Maria Elisabetta on the Venice Lido to the main festival venue. The march is running under the title ’Stop The Genocide – Free Palestine’.
The issue of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza could play a major role at the festival, with several hundred industry figures among over 1,500 people who have signed an open letter from the groups, which are united under the name Venice4Palestine (V4P).
Marina Vergnano, a spokesperson for V4P, said at the demonstration: “The role of institutions must be to take a position… and not deny a military genocide.”
The V4P letter, first published on August 22, called for “those who work in film to imagine, coordinate and implement together, during the Festival, actions that give voice to criticism of pro-Zionist government policies”.
The V4P campaign is led by Italian activist groups but has signatories from across the global industry including Marco Bellocchio, Matteo Garrone, Valeria Golino, Alice and Alba Rohrwacher, Benedetta Porcaroli and Toni Servillo from Italy; and international names including Ken Loach, Celine Sciamma, Claire Simon, Audrey Diwan and Teona Strugar Mitevska.
Mitevska’s Mother Teresa film Mother opens the official selection Horizons strand this afternoon.
Response from festival
The V4P group published an update on August 24 in which it said it was “disheartened by the response we received… from the Biennale, which fails to address the substance of our letter.” It “warmly welcomed” the responses from the independent sidebars, Giornate degli Autori and Venice Critics’ Week.
The festival’s official communication on the issue said it is a “place of open and sensitive dialogue”, but did not directly name Palestine, Gaza, Israel or the ongoing conflict. The festival statement noted the presence of Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, about the killing of a young Palestinian girl in Gaza, in competition; and Israeli film Of Dogs And Men in Horizons last year.
In response, the V4P group made a series of requests, including for “space be given to Palestinian artists” during the opening ceremony, and for the festival to withdraw invitations to Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot for their perceived support for Israel and for any artist or celebrity “who publicly and actively supports the genocide”.
Butler and Gadot are on the cast of Julian Schnabel’s Competition title In The Hand Of Dante; Gadot is not expected to attend the festival.
The festival opens this evening with the world premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s Grace.
Last week at Sarajevo Film Festival, Sorrentino described what is happening in Gaza as a “genocide”; Grace will be distributed in several territories by Mubi, which has had its own controversy on the topic over $100m in funding it received from investment firm Sequoia Capital, which also backs an Israeli defence technology company.