A large group of mostly Italian film industry professionals, including auteurs Marco Bellocchio, Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher, has launched an appeal for the Venice Film Festival to take a more active pro-Palestinian stance.
The group, gathered under the banner of V4P (Venice4Palestine), on Saturday published an open letter urging the fest’s parent organization, the Venice Biennale and its independent parallel sections Giornate degli Autori (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 Venice Film Festival kicks off Tuesday.
“Stop the clocks, turn off the stars,” reads the letter’s opening paragraph.
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“The burden is too much to carry on living as before. For almost two years now, images of unmistakable clarity have been reaching us from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Incredulous and helpless, we keep witnessing the torment of a genocide carried out live by the State of Israel in Palestine. No one will ever be able to say: ‘I couldn’t know, I couldn’t imagine, I couldn’t believe,’” the letter adds.
Non-Italian signatories of the open letter include Abel Ferrara, Ken Loach, French Golden Lion-winning “The Happening” director Audrey Diwan and Palestinian directorial duo Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser, who won best director in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard this year for their latest film “Once Upon a Time in Gaza.”
The Biennale was quick to respond. “The Biennale and the festival have always been, throughout their history, places of open discussion and sensitivity to all the most pressing issues facing society and the world,” the group said in a statement.
“The evidence of this is, first and foremost, the works that are being presented [at the festival],” the statement added, citing the case of the film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, which is in competition this year. This hot-button political drama is about the killing of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was left stranded in a car that had been attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024 and later found dead. Unveiling the lineup in July, Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera appeared visibly moved as he noted that Ben Hania used the real audio tapes of phone calls between the girl and her mother.
In its statement, the Biennale further noted that last year’s Venice lineup featured Israeli director Dani Rosenberg’s film “Of Dogs and Men” shot in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The film follows a 16-year-old named Dar who is returning to her kibbutz to look for her dog which was lost during the terror spree.
“The Biennale is, as always, open to dialogue,” the statement concluded.
