Venice in the name of Gaza: Golden Lion to Jarmusch, Servillo thanks the Flotilla for Best Actor

The fear that the 82nd Venice Film Festival might be a bubble isolated from the world's conflicts, and especially the tragedy in Gaza, was shattered in a resounding fashion by the closing ceremony on the Lido. Even though the high point, decided by the jury chaired by Alexander Payne, was a pop cinephile flourish: the Golden Lion went to Jim Jarmusch, here with his film about families in crisis in Father, Mother, Sister, Brother . The master of cinema, with his calm demeanor and plum suit, did not, in his own way, shy away from the world around him: '

"I appreciated the words of respect for the empathy of my fellow American Benny Safdie (Silver Lion for Best Director for The Smashing Machine), something we are not to blame for," he concluded. "Art doesn't necessarily have to talk about politics to be political, but empathy is one of the first ways to deal with this world we are living in."

Elsewhere, the power of a film like Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, winner of the Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize (standing ovation from the audience), was recognized. It focuses on the little girl who died in Gaza during an attack after hours of conversation with Red Crescent workers who had tried in vain to save her. But many other stories rooted in the realities of today's contradictory and often violent society also drew the spotlight: from A Pied'oeuvre (screenplay award for director Valerie Donzelli and Gilles Marchand) to Naples, poised between poetry, beauty, and daily risk, as depicted in Sotto le nuvole by Gianfranco Rosi (Special Jury Prize). Rosi ideally shared the prize with the other 15 documentary filmmakers present at the Festival because they represent "an outpost and a force of resistance, whose task is to often bear witness to the atrocities of this world."

All this in a chorus of dozens of appeals not only for the Palestinians but also to stop the many other conflicts and massacres underway around the world, from Ukraine to the Rohingya genocide, to the repression in Iran . Beginning with the words of Kaouther Ben Hania: "Hind's voice will continue to resonate until justice is done: we all believe in the power of cinema, it's what brought us here and gives us the courage to tell stories that would otherwise be buried," explains the filmmaker, in an elegant electric blue dress. "I dedicate the award to the Palestinian Red Crescent and to those who risk their lives to save lives in Gaza, true heroes, trying to hear the cries of people to whom no one answers."

Toni Servillo, winner of the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor for Paolo Sorrentino's Grace , in addition to thanking the Neapolitan director, added "a sentiment shared by all Italian cinema: expressing admiration for those who courageously set sail, reaching Palestine, and bringing a sign of humanity to a land where human dignity is cruelly vilified on a daily basis." A nod to Flotilla also came from Benedetta Porcaroli, best actress in the Orizzonti section for Carolina Cavalli's The Kidnapping of Arabella : "They," she said, "remind us that there is a valid reason for getting up in the morning, and it's called humanity." The award for Best Actor in Orizzonti went to another Italian, Giacomo Covi, for Laura Samani's A Year at School.

(Unioneonline)