Gaza war film The Voice of Hind Rajab wins 2nd prize at Venice festival

The Silver Lion award was presented to a five-year-old Palestinian girl by Israel during its ongoing conflict in Gaza.

French-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab placed second on Saturday behind American independent director Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother.

The movie details Hind Rajab’s true story, which was claimed by Israeli forces last year as she and her family attempted to flee Gaza City.

Real audio from Rajab’s hours-long call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, in which rescuers tried to comfort her as she lay stranded in a car with her aunt, uncle, and three cousins who had all been shot down by Israeli fire.

The two ambulance workers who attempted to save the girl also died at the scene.

The Venice Lido film received the most positive reviews, with many people predicting the movie would win after a 23-minute standing ovation at its premiere on Wednesday.

When Ben Hania presented her with her award, he claimed that Rajab’s story was tragically the story of “an entire people enduring genocide” as well as the young girl’s.

“Cinema cannot retake Hind, nor can it overthrow the atrocity she committed against her. Nothing can ever be restored, but film can preserve the voice of the voice and make it resonate across borders, according to the director.

“Her voice will keep evoking until justice is served, and until accountability is real.”

More than 64, 000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s occupation of Gaza, including more than 18, 000 children, in addition to the festival’s extensive shadow.

At the ceremony, Jarmusch, who won the coveted Golden Lion, wore a badge that read “Enough” to show his opposition to Israel’s continued siege and bombardment of Gaza.

The 72-year-old director acknowledged earlier this week that he was concerned that one of his main distributors had taken money from a business that had links to the Israeli military when he unveiled Father Mother Sister Brother.

The three-part meditation on the uneasy ties between parents and their adult children is based on Jarmusch’s winning movie, which stars Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, and Tom Waits.

He thanked the grand jury for “appreciating our quiet film” and called Saturday’s victory an “unexpected honor.”

In other categories, Xin Zhilei won best actress for her role in the drama The Sun Rises On Us All, which explores issues of sacrifice, guilt, and unresolved feelings between estranged lovers who share a dark secret, while Italy’s Toni Servillo won best actor for his wry portrayal of a weary president nearing the end of his mandat in La Grazia.

Benny Safdie received the best director nod for The Smashing Machine, a film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the real-life mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr.

Gianfranco Rosi, an Italian filmmaker, won the special jury award for his black-and-white film Below the Clouds, which explores life in Naples’ troubled southern city and is characterized by frequent earthquakes and the threat of volcanic eruptions.

One of the award-winning actors, Servillo, spoke about Gaza from the stage and praised activists on a flotilla of boats trying to “break” Israel’s hold on the island.

According to Servillo, they “have chosen to set sail with courage to Palestine and bring a sign of humanity to a place where human dignity is consistently and cruelly undermined.”

Annapurna Roy, who was the recipient of the Horizons sidebar’s best director prize led by French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, also dedicated a portion of her remarks to the Gaza conflict.

For her debut film, Songs of Forgotton Trees, about two migrant women in Mumbai, Roy, an Indian, won.

Every child is deserving of peace, freedom, and freedom, and Palestine, according to Roy. I support Palestine, “. Although I may upset my country, I have no bearing.

Maryam Touzani, the filmmaker who won the audience award at Armani Beauty’s film competition in Gaza, also brought attention to the conflict there.

How many mothers have been abandoned? she stated. How many more before this horror is over? We “refuse to lose” our humanity.

The Venice festival regularly hosts big Oscar winners, with films that have won almost 90 Oscar nominations and almost 20 in the process. It also marks the start of the awards season.

A trio of Netflix movies, Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear thriller A House of Dynamite, Guillermo del Toro’s re-telling of Frankenstein, and Jay Kelly, a comedy-drama from Noah Baumbach, were just a few of the films that left Venice empty-handed.

Source: Aljazeera