Venice Filmmakers Protest Israeli Films’ ‘Complicity’ at Festival

Nearly 300 filmmakers have signed an open letter opposing two Israeli films screening at the Venice Film Festival.

Filmmakers and artists’ protest amid ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict targets Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film Al Klavim Veanashim (Dogs and Men), which takes place against the backdrop of the October 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, and the novel by Amos Gitai Why the war?The latter, with Irène Jacob, Mathieu Amalric, Micha Lescot and Jérôme Kircher, will have its world premiere on August 31 out of competition.

“Dogs and Menfilmed amid ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza, whitewashes the genocide. Dogs and Men, Why War? “was created by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation and now genocide through their silence or active participation in the whitewashing of art,” says the letter, published by Artists for Palestine Italia.

The artists are represented by a number of Palestinian filmmakers and actors, including Oscar nominees Hany Abu-Assad, Rosalind Nashashibi, Raed Andoni and Saleh Bakri. Other signatories include filmmakers Enrico Parenti and Alessandra Ferrini; actors Niccolò Senni, Simona Cavallari, Chiara Baschetti and Paola Michelini; and screenwriter and David di Donatello nominee Davide Serino.

Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant, Neo Sora, director of Happy endingDirectors Saul Williams, Brett Story and Monica Maurer, as well as composer Nitin Sawhney also signed the letter, which states that Venice “has remained silent on the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. This silence deeply outrages us.”

Read the open letter in full below.

No art washing at the 81 Mostra Del Cinema di Venezia

We, the undersigned artists, filmmakers and cultural workers, reject any complicity with the Israeli apartheid regime and oppose the artistic cover-up of the Gaza genocide against Palestinians at the 81st Venice Film Festival. Two films screened at the Festival – Of Dogs and Men and Why War – were created by Israeli production companies that are complicit in the cover-up of Israeli oppression against Palestinians.

The International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court, has declared that Israel is likely committing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and that its apartheid regime and military occupation are illegal. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has asked the court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who they accuse of “extermination” and “deliberately starving the civilian population and causing the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people.”

Of Dogs and Men, filmed in the midst of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, whitewashes the genocide. Like Of Dogs and Men, Why War was created by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation and now genocide through their silence or active participation in the whitewashing of art. Palestinian society, including the absolute majority of filmmakers, has called for refusal to screen such productions.

The Venice Film Festival has remained silent on the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. This silence deeply outrages us. As art and film professionals from around the world, we call for effective and ethical measures to hold the Israeli apartheid state accountable for its crimes and its system of colonial oppression against Palestinians.

We say that it is unacceptable that films made by production companies that are complicit with a regime that continually commits atrocities against the Palestinian people are being screened in Venice. The film festival should not programme productions that are complicit in the crimes of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide, regardless of who commits them, and should refrain from doing so in the future.

The artistic whitewashing of the Israeli genocide in Gaza on the international cultural stage, including at film festivals, is deeply immoral.