Latest news with #Fatem
LeMonde
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- LeMonde
Cannes Film Festival: Emotions run high at screening of documentary on photojournalist Fatma Hassona, killed in Gaza
She should have been there, but instead, Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up a photo. It was of a young woman with a radiant smile, her gentle face framed by a veil. At 8 pm in the Olympia cinema hall in Cannes, on Thursday, May 15, the audience rose as one to honor the memory of Gaza photojournalist Fatma Hassona, also known as "Fatem." On April 16, at the age of 25, she died, along with several of her relatives, in the bombing of the building where she lived, in the Al-Touffah neighborhood, in the northern part of Gaza City. In such moments, the festival audience feels both concerned and powerless. The president of the Cannes competition jury, Juliette Binoche, paid tribute to "Fatem" during the opening ceremony on May 13. The day before, an open letter published in Vanity Fair and Libération, gathering more than 300 cinema figures (Pedro Almodovar, David Cronenberg, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Ruben Östlund, etc.), condemned the "silence" over Gaza. Hassona's name has been added to the list of some 200 journalists killed since the start of Israel's ground offensive, in retaliation for Hamas's attacks on October 7, 2023. Since that date, Hassona had been documenting daily life for the enclave's residents, which Israel prohibits foreign journalists from accessing.
The Independent
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Palestinian star of Cannes documentary killed in Israeli missile strike
Fatma Hassona, a Palestinian photojournalist who is the protagonist of Sepideh Farsi's documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, has been killed by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza. She was 25. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk is set to screen as part of ACID (Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa Diffusion), a parallel section promoting independent film at next month's Cannes Film Festival. In a statement to The Independent, the organizers of ACID said: 'We, filmmakers and members of the ACID team, met Fatma Hassona 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 Fatem 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 theaters, starting with Cannes. All of us, filmmakers and spectators alike, must be worthy of her light.' In an additional statement, Farsi 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. 'How does one survive in Gaza, undersiege for all those years? What is the daily life of Palestinian people under war? What is it that Israel wishes to erase in this handful of square kilometers, with so many bombs and missiles? 'I, who had just finished a movie, The Siren, about another war, the one between Iraq and Iran. I, who could still feel the distant echo of the explosion's shockwaves ringing in my ears, and dust in the back of my throat, from my Iranian teenage-hood. I wanted to know how the Gazans resisted to all of this, what they were going through... I could not find the answer in news and media. I wanted to hear their words unmediated. I wanted to be in Gaza. Something my 'born in Iran' stamped French passport made inconceivable for Egyptian administration and Israeli occupation. 'From our first conversation, I grabbed my camera and started filming: our exchanges, Fatem and I, what was going on around her, asking her to bring me to a window, whether of her house or her shelter, depending on where she was, for me to see through the window. And so, Fatem became my eyes in Gaza, and I, a window open on the world, for her. I filmed, catching the moments offered by our video calls, what Fatem was sharing with me, fiery and full of life. I filmed her laughs, her tears, her hopes and her despair. I followed my instinct. Without knowing beforehand where those images would lead us. Such is the beauty of cinema. The beauty of life.' The war, now in its 18th month, started when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, and taking 251 others hostage. The group still holds 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fatma Hassona, the Palestinian Protagonist of Cannes-Bound ‘Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,' Killed in Israeli Missile Strike
Fatma Hassona, the Palestinian protagonist of Sepideh Farsi's 'Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk' – selected for Cannes' ACID – was tragically killed with her family by an Israeli missile that targeted her building, the ACID team has shared with Variety. 'Her smile was as magical as her tenacity: bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning and hunger. We heard her story, rejoiced at each of her appearances to see her alive, we feared for her,' said the team in a statement. More from Variety Lucio Castro's Cannes ACID Title 'Drunken Noodles' Boarded by M-Appeal (EXCLUSIVE) Indie Sales Boards Cannes Directors' Fortnight Title 'Peak Everything' by Canadian Director Anne Emond, Hailing From 'Universal Language' Producers (EXCLUSIVE) 'Militantropos' Acquired by Square Eyes Ahead of Premiere in Cannes' Directors' Fortnight (EXCLUSIVE) '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 theaters, starting with Cannes. All of us, filmmakers and spectators alike, must be worthy of her light.' Sepideh Farsi, the Iranian director of the film, also wrote about the tragic event: 'Maybe I'm ushering in my death now Before the person standing in front of me loads His elite sniper's rifle And it ends And I end. Silence. Those are the words of Fatma Hassona, or Fatem to her friends, excerpted from a long poem called 'The Man Who Wore His Eyes.'' A poem that smells of sulfur, that smells of death already, but that is also full of life, as was Fatem, until this morning, before an Israeli bomb took her life, as well as the lives of her entire family, reducing their home to rubble,' she said. Hassona, who was based in Gaza, had turned 25. 'I got to know her through a Palestinian friend in Cairo, while I was desperately searching for a way to reach Gaza, seeking the answer to a question both simple and complex. How does one survive in Gaza, under siege for all these years? What is the daily life of Palestinian people under war? What is it that Israel wishes to erase in this handful of square kilometers, with bombs and missiles?' Previously, Farsi made the animated feature 'The Siren' about the war between Iraq and Iran. 'I, who could still feel the distant echo of the explosion's shockwaves ringing in my ears (…) wanted to know how the Gazans resisted all this, what they were going through… I could not find the answer in the news and media. I wanted to hear their words unmediated. I wanted to be in Gaza,' she said. While she couldn't travel there, she filmed their conversations. 'And so, Fatem became my eyes in Gaza and I, a window open on the world. I filmed, catching the moments offered by our video calls, what Fatem was offering, fiery and full of life. I filmed her laughs, her tears, her hopes and her depression. I followed my instinct. Without knowing beforehand where those images would lead us. Such is the beauty of cinema. The beauty of life.' In the film, Fatem opened up about being a Palestinian in Gaza. 'I'm proud of it. They'll never be able to beat us, whatever they do. Because we have nothing to lose,' she stated. Farsi added: 'Every day, I thought about Palestinians outside Gaza, far from their families, and I wondered how they could go on living with such anguish. And for that as well, I had no answer. I told myself I had no right to fear for her, if she herself was not afraid. I clung to her strength, to her unwavering faith.' 'I was very skeptical when the ceasefire was announced in December, but I told myself I had no right not to believe in it if the Palestinians and Fatem did. I did manage to call her two days ago and, miraculously, she answered. I wanted to tell her that her film had been selected by ACID. That it was going to be shown in Cannes.' Farsi recalled their conversation: – 'So… will you come present the film with me? – Yes, but only if I can return to Gaza afterwards. They want to make us leave, to take our lands and our homes. But we will stay. – Aren't you scared something will happen to you? – No… You know, nothing lasts forever on this earth. Not even this war. It will be over one day.' At first, she refused to believe the news, thinking it was a mistake. 'Like the one a few months ago, when a family with the same surname had perished in an Israeli attack. Incredulous, I called her, then sent her a message, then another one. I know that Fatem will no longer answer, that I will never see her brothers again, nor her sister Alaa, a painter who was six months pregnant, nor her father, a taxi driver who was stuck at home since the beginning of the Israeli offensive. All those bright existences were crushed by a finger that pressed on a button and dropped a bomb to erase one more home.' Farsi stated: 'There are no more doubts to be had. What is occurring in Gaza today is not, and has not been in a long Ame, an answer to the crimes committed by Hamas on October 7. It is a genocide. I blame those that are committing it as well as their accomplices, and I ask for justice for Fatem and for all innocent Palestinians that have died.' She ended, again, with a poem: 'Are you a fish? I did not answer when the sea asked me I didn't know where these crows came from And pounced on my flesh Would it have seemed logical? -If I said: Yes- Let these crows pounce at the end On a fish! She crossed And I did not cross My death crossed me And a sharp sniper bullet I became an angel For a city. Huge Bigger than my dreams Bigger than this city.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
