The Cannes film festival paid tribute to Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna on Thursday evening, at the premiere of Sepideh Farsi’s documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.
The 25-year-old Palestinian journalist was killed in April, a day after the film was accepted into Cannes, when an Israeli missile struck her residential building.
Farsi was reportedly emotional at the premiere while introducing the film and held up a photo of Hassouna.
“She used to say this would pass,” Farsi was quoted as having said about Hassan by Reuters. “And it will pass. She is not here but yet she is present, they didn't manage to defeat her.”
Last month, the festival wrote on its website announcing the film’s screening: “Fatima Hassouna is one of the far too many victims of the violence that has engulfed the region for months.
“The Festival de Cannes wishes to express its dread and profound sadness at this tragedy that has moved and shocked the whole world. Although a film is a small thing in the face of such a tragedy, the screening of Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk on 15 May in Cannes as part of ACID, will be, in addition to the message of the film itself, a way to honour the memory of Fatima Hassouna.”
The film was screened as part of ACID (Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa Diffusion), a parallel section promoting independent film at the Cannes film festival.
Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche honoured Hassouna at the festival’s opening on Tuesday, saying: “She should have been here among us this evening,” Binoche said. “Art remains. It is a powerful testimony of our lives and dreams; and we, the audience, embrace it.”
Farsi told Reuters ahead of the screening that Hassouna had been “determined to come to the Cannes Film Festival to see the documentary”, and had been “glowing with joy” when she learned the film had been selected for the festival.
“I hoped she would be here with me so we could make some noise together. Now that she’s been taken away from us, I will do what I can with this film, her pictures, her poems and her words,” Farsi, who organised an exhibition dedicated to Hassouna’s photographs during the film festival, told France24.
Hassouna had been named in a letter signed by over 370 industry figures, condemning her death and calling out the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for its “lack of support” for Hamdan Ballal, the co-director of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.
“We are ashamed of such passivity,” it read. “For Fatima, for all those who die in indifference. Cinema has a duty to carry their messages, to reflect our societies. Let’s act before it’s too late.”
The letter was signed by Mark Ruffalo, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Melissa Barrera, Yorgos Lanthimos, Javier Bardem, Hannah Einbinder, Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Leigh, Alex Gibney, Viggo Mortensen, Cynthia Nixon, and Tessa Ross, among others.
In a statement to The Independent after news of her death, the organizers of ACID said: “We, filmmakers and members of the ACID team, met Fatima Hassouna when we discovered Sepideh Farsi’s film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk during the Cannes programme.
“Her smile was as magical as her tenacity: bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning and hunger. We heard her story, we rejoiced at each of her appearances to see her alive, we feared for her. Yesterday, we were shocked to learn that an Israeli missile had targeted her building, killing Fatema and her family.
“We had watched and programmed a film in which this young woman's life force seemed like a miracle. This is no longer the same film that we are going to support and present in all theatres, starting with Cannes. All of us, filmmakers and spectators alike, must be worthy of her light.”
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In an additional statement, Farsi had described how making contact with Hassona had been invaluable for the Iranian filmmaker’s documentary about Gaza.
“I got to know her through a Palestinian friend in Cairo, while I was desperately searching for a way to reach Gaza, while hitting blocked roads, seeking the answer to a question both simple and complex,” said Farsi.
The war in Gaza started when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, and taking 251 others hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in the territory has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. No humanitarian assistance has been delivered to Gaza since 2 March, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation in Gaza.
