Cannes says film festival will ‘honor’ Gaza photojournalist killed in Israeli strike

The Cannes film festival says that the screening of a documentary about Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna at the event next month will honor her work after the “horror” of her death in an Israeli airstrike 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 with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Hassouna was killed along with 10 relatives in an airstrike on her family home in northern Gaza last Wednesday, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.

The Israel Defense Forces has said the strike 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 says 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 adds.

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.”