Cannes film festival to honour slain Gaza photojournalist
Entertainment
Hassouna was killed along with 10 relatives in an air strike
PARIS (Web Desk) The Cannes film festival has said the screening of a documentary about Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna at the event next month would honour her work after the “horror” of her death in an Israeli air strike last week.
“Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” by Iranian director Sepideh Farsi is to be shown at ACID Cannes, at this year’s May 13-24 festival, which runs parallel to the main competition.
The film features conversations between Farsi and Hassouna as the 25-year-old photographer documents the impact of Israel’s devastating war on the Palestinian territory.
Hassouna was killed along with 10 relatives in an air strike on her family home in northern Gaza last Wednesday, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.
The Israeli military, which media freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has accused of carrying out a massacre of Palestinian journalists, claimed it had targeted 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 festival said in a statement on Hassouna sent 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 honoring the memory of the young woman, a victim like so many others of the war,” it added.
Just before her death, 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 told Hollywood news website Deadline after her death. “I had talked to her a few hours before to tell her that the film was in Cannes and to invite her.”
