The Venice Film Festival on Saturday has become the center of the largest event ever seen during a major cinematographic event on the Military Assault in Israel against Gaza.
Thousands of people, young people and lesss, made up of guests of the festival and public members, participated in a major march denouncing Israel and calling at the end of the genocide. In the middle of a sea of Palestinian flags, there were songs of “free Palestine”. Despite the serious nature of the message, there was a feeling of carnival, with demonstrators on stilts waving banners of “peace”, the music that explodes speakers, light rockets and mists.
The event – organized with the support of many groups, associations and organizations – aimed to ensure that the festival had a visible and public position on the war in Gaza and was used as a platform.
“The Venice Film Festival should not remain an isolated event of reality, but rather to become a space to denounce the genocide led by Israel, the complicity of Western governments and to provide concrete support to the Palestinian people,” the organizers said in a statement in advance.
To this end, visibility was undeniable. The main roads of the Lido were closed by the police while walking slowly headed for the main area of the festival.
“In Gaza, hospitals, schools and refugee camps are bombed; Civilians are deprived of food and water; Journalists and doctors are killed; Humanitarian ships such as Freedom Flotilla are seized. Law, “added the press release.
“Italy and Europe – through arms supplies, economic agreements and diplomatic coverage – are accomplices of this barbarism. It’s time to stop the massacre: stop the genocide, stop arms sales, stop Western complicity. ”
With the international condemnation of the War of Israel against Gaza’s growth while the number of civilians killed continued to increase, the Venice Film Festival – generally a less political event compared to other festivals on list A – has become one of the most noisy.
Earlier in the week, the demonstrators agitated Palestinian flags and held a banner that read “free Palestine. Stop the genocide ”in front of the festival headquarters, Palazzo del Cinema.
Before the festival, the organizers of Venice were urged by hundreds of filmmakers and international artists to take a “clear and unambiguous stand (by condemning) the genocide in progress in Gaza and ethnic cleaning through Palestine directed by the Israeli government and the army.” They were also called upon to darker celebrities who showed public support for Israel, like the stars “in the hand of dante” Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler. Gadot was then confirmed as not having attended the party.
In response to the letter, Biennale said that the Venice Film Festival has “always been, throughout their history, places of discussion open and sensitivity to all the most urgent problems of society and the world. The proof is, above all, the works that are presented (at the festival). ”
The chief of Venice Alberto Barbera was asked about the position of the Festival on the war in Gaza at the jury press conference, to which he said: “We were asked to refuse invitations to artists; We will not. If they wanted to be clearly to the sadness and suffering of vis-à-vis what is happening in Gaza and the death of death and death vis-à-vis Gaza and the death of the death of the death of the death of the death of what happens in Gaza and the death of the death of the death of the death of the vision of the vision of the vision of the death of the vision of the death of the death of the death of The death and the death of the death of the vision to a towards what is happening in Gaza and the death of civilians and the death of vis-à-vis Gaza. Especially children, who are victims, the collateral damage of a war that no one has yet been able to end. »»
Meanwhile, the president of the Venice jury, Alexander Payne, has diplomatically chosen not to offer his point of view on the issue. “I am here to judge and talk about cinema. My political opinions, I am sure, agree with many yours. ”
