The Cannes movie competition stated Wednesday that the screening of a documentary about Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna on the occasion subsequent month would honor her work after the “horror” of her dying in an Israeli air strike final week.
“Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” by Iranian director Sepideh Farsi is to be proven at ACID Cannes, at this 12 months’s May 13-24 competition, which runs parallel to the principle competitors.
The movie options conversations between Farsi and Hassouna, 25, as she paperwork the affect of Israel’s devastating struggle on the Palestinian territory.
Hassouna was killed together with 10 kinfolk in an air strike on her household dwelling in northern Gaza final Wednesday, the day after the documentary was introduced as a part of the ACID Cannes choice.
The Israeli army, which media freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has accused of finishing up a “massacre” of Palestinian journalists, claimed it had focused a Hamas member.
“The Cannes Film Festival wishes to express its horror and deep sorrow at this tragedy, which has moved and shocked the entire world,” the competition stated in an announcement on Hassouna despatched to AFP.
“While a film is little in the face of such a tragedy, its screening at the ACID section in Cannes on May 15 will be, in addition to the message of the film itself, a way of honouring the memory of the young woman, a victim like so many others of the war,” it added.
Just earlier than her dying, Hassouna wrote on social media that “if I die, I want a loud death. I don’t want to be just breaking news, or a number in a group.”
“She was such a light, so talented. When you see the film you’ll understand,” Farsi instructed Hollywood news web site Deadline after her dying. “I had talked to her a few hours before to tell her that the film was in Cannes and to invite her.”
The ACID competition stated Hassouna’s “life force seemed like a miracle”, in an announcement launched after her dying.
“This is no longer the same film that we are going to support and present in all theatres, starting with Cannes,” it added.
RSF additionally denounced her dying. “Her name joins those of nearly 200 journalists killed in 18 months. This carnage must stop,” it wrote on the Bluesky social media web site.
Also at Cannes, Palestinian twins Tarzan and Arab Nasser will showcase their newest movie “Once Upon a Time In Gaza”, a story of homicide and friendship set within the war-torn territory, within the secondary “Un Certain Regard” part.
An assault by Hamas militants on Israel on October 7, 2023 set off the struggle. The assault resulted within the deaths of 1,218 individuals, largely civilians, in keeping with an AFP tally primarily based on official Israeli figures.
Israeli forces have since killed greater than 51,000 individuals in Gaza, in keeping with the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.
© 2025 AFP