Cannes Film Festival organisers said the screening of a documentary about Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna at the event next month would honour her work, after the "horror" of her death in an Israeli air strike.
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk by Iranian director Sepideh Farsi is to be shown at ACID Cannes, which runs parallel to the main competition, at this year's festival from 13 to 24 May.
The film features conversations between Farsi and Hassouna, as the 25-year-old photographer documented the impact of the devastating war between Israel and Hamas on the Palestinian territory.
Hassouna was killed along with 10 of her relatives in an air strike on her family home in northern Gaza last Wednesday, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.
The Israeli military, which media freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has accused of carrying out a "massacre" of Palestinian journalists, claimed it had 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 said, in a statement on Hassouna's death sent to French news agency AFP.
"While a film is little in the face of such a tragedy, its screening at the ACID section in Cannes on 15 May will be, in addition to the message of the film itself, a way of honouring the memory of the young woman, a victim like so many others of the war," it added.
French journalists' collective appeals for solidarity with colleagues in Gaza
'She was such a light'
Just before her death, Hassouna wrote on social media: "If I die, I want a loud death. I don't want to be just breaking news, or a number in a group."
"She was such a light, so talented. When you see the film you'll understand," Farsi told Hollywood news website Deadline after her death. "I had talked to her a few hours before to tell her that the film was in Cannes and to invite her."
The ACID festival said her "life force seemed like a miracle" in a statement released after her death.
RSF also denounced her death. "Her name joins those of nearly 200 journalists killed in 18 months. This carnage must stop," it wrote on the Bluesky social media platform.
Also at Cannes, Palestinian twins Tarzan and Arab Nasser will showcase their latest film Once Upon a Time In Gaza, a tale of murder and friendship set in the war-torn territory, in the secondary Un Certain Regard section.
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Late additions
Cannes Festival organisers also this week announced two new films in its main competition that will compete for its coveted Palme d'Or award.
American filmmaker Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin) has been selected for the main competition with her thriller Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.
Of the 21 films in the main competition this year, seven have been made by women directors, the joint highest total.
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Iran's Saeed Roustaee is also set to compete for the main prize with his latest feature, Mother and Child, three years after showing Leila's Brothers in Cannes – which led to him being sentenced to six months in prison in Iran.
The festival has also secured the world premiere of the first film directed by former Twilight star Kristen Stewart – The Chronology of Water – which will screen in the Un Certain Regard competition.
She will be up against fellow American actress-turned-director Scarlett Johansson whose director debut Eleanor the Great has been selected in the same section.
(with AFP)
