Filmmaker Sarah Friedland denounced, “as an American Jewish artist,” the “Israeli genocide in Gaza,” while receiving an award at the 81st Venice Film Festival on Saturday.
The director received several awards (including best director) for her film “Familiar Touch”, presented in the parallel Orizzonti section, which follows the journey of an octogenarian in a nursing home.
“As a Jewish American artist (…) I must note that I am accepting this award on the 336th day of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the 76th year of occupation,” she said on stage at the Palais du Cinéma.
“I believe it is our responsibility as film workers to use the institutional platforms through which we work to address Israel’s impunity on the world stage. I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation,” she added.
She did not mention the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.
The war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas entered its 12th month on Saturday, with no sign of a letup in the deadly Israeli bombardments and no hope of a quick truce or the release of the hostages.
Israel has vowed to destroy the Islamist movement that seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist movement by the United States and the European Union.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack in southern Israel bordering the country, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 97 are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the army.
In response, the Israeli military launched an air campaign followed by a ground offensive that has so far killed 40,939 people, according to the Hamas government’s Health Ministry. The majority of the dead are women and children, according to the UN.
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