Earlier this week, a group of more than 350 international actors, directors and producers signed a letter published on the first day of the Cannes Film Festival condemning the killing of Fatma Hassona, the 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and protagonist of the documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.
Hassouna was killed along with 10 relatives in an Israeli air strike on her family home in northern Gaza last month, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.
The signatories included Pedro Almodóvar, Ruben Östlund, Guy Pierce, Ralph Fiennes, Melissa Barrera, Yórgos Lánthimos, Susan Sarandon, Alfonso Cuarón and David Cronenberg. They denounced genocide in Gaza: “We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” read the letter initiated by several pro-Palestinian activist groups and published in French newspaper Libération and US magazine Variety.
“We are ashamed of such passivity.”
The letter also urged cinema to use its art form to “draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed” and to be “present to protect oppressed voices.”
Now, 60 more artists and celebrities have added their names to the letter condemning the film industry for its “silence” over the ongoing and deadly impact of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza – including this year’s Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche, Pedro Pascal, Guillermo del Toro, Noémie Merlant and Omar Sy.
Other new signatories also include Riz Ahmed, Tomas Alfredson, Carter Burwell, Robin Campillo, Camille Cottin, Adèle Haenel, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Moore, Alice Rohrwacher and Peter Straughan.
Read the full letter below:
Fatma Hassona was 25 years old.
She was a Palestinian freelance photojournalist. She was targeted by the Israeli army on 16 April 2025, the day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi’s film “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” in which she was the star, had been selected in the ACID section of the Cannes Film Festival.
She was about to get married.
Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed by the same Israeli strike.
Since the terrible massacres of 7 October 2023, no foreign journalist has been authorised to enter the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is targeting civilians. More than 200 journalists have been deliberately killed. Writers, film-makers and artists are being brutally murdered.
At the end of March, Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, who won an Oscar for his film “No Other Land,” was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers and then kidnapped by the army, before being released under international pressure. The Oscar Academy’s lack of support for Hamdan Ballal sparked outrage among its own members and it had to publicly apologize for its inaction.
We are ashamed of such passivity.
Why is it that cinema, a breeding ground for socially committed works, seems to be so indifferent to the horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers?
As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard.
What is the point of our professions if not to draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed, if we are not present to protect oppressed voices?
Why this silence?
The far right, fascism, colonialism, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA+, sexist, racist, islamophobic and antisemitic movements are waging their battle on the battlefield of ideas, attacking publishing, cinema and universities, and that’s why we have a duty to fight.
Let’s refuse to let our art be an accomplice to the worst.
Let us rise up.
Let us name reality.
Let us collectively dare to look at it with the precision of our sensitive hearts, so that it can no longer be silenced and covered up.
Let us reject the propaganda that constantly colonizes our imaginations and makes us lose our sense of humanity.
For Fatma, for all those who die in indifference.
Cinema has a duty to carry their messages, to reflect our societies.
Let’s act before it’s too late.
When asked about the open letter at the Cultural Council in Brussels earlier this week, French minister of culture Rachida Dati told Euronews: “It is their role to engage and to have a commitment. I believe that culture and politics go hand in hand. It can be exceptional, when we are committed to creative freedom – because as you know, at the moment there are more and more attacks on creativity. That’s why I want to create a senior civil servant for creative freedom.”
She added: “I have taken measures to prevent these attacks on creativity, including many programmers and curators who no longer want to select films. There is more and more self-censorship when it comes to programming. And so, we have to commit to this freedom of creation, we have to prevent obstacles to the freedom of creation, and artists have a role to play in taking sides, in mobilising in relation to what is happening in the world.”
Concluding, she shared: “Personally, I’d be very surprised if the cultural and artistic players weren’t mobilised and committed. That’s what culture and politics are for. It is said that music softens morals – culture can also save the world. So, I think that everyone is doing their part.”
