Juliette Binoche Dodges Question About Cinema Figures’ Gaza Open Letter At Cannes Press Conference
When Cannes Film Festival Jury President Juliette Binoche was asked today why she didn’t sign a global film industry open letter condemning the “silence” over the deadly impact of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza; The English Patient Oscar winner told a reporter “I cannot answer you.”
“You will maybe understand it a little later,” the actress said.
Binoche at this afternoon’s Cannes jury press conference was asked by Al Jazeera English about the open letter that was released on the eve of the festival with signatures from more than 350 cinema world figures including Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Javier Bardem.
“In Cannes, the horror Gaza must not be silenced,” read the letter.
Binoche was questioned on why she did not sign the letter herself, despite being “well-known for speaking out about a variety of causes.” After a long hesitation, she refused to answer but insisted that there was a reason for her decision.
The letter, published on the website of France’s Libération newspaper on Monday evening, was addressed “For Fatem”, in memory of 25-year-old Gaza artist and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna.
The young woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in mid-April just 24 hours after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi’s documentary Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, exploring Hassouna’s life in the Gaza Strip, would world premiere in the parallel Cannes section ACID. Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed in same strike.
Politics, particularly on the global scale, have always found a place here at Cannes, and today Binoche also fielded queries about Donald Trump’s possible film and TV import tariffs as well as the latest guilty verdict dispensed in a Paris court to her Let the Sunshine In co-star Gérard Depardieu for sexual assault on the set of Jean Becker’s The Green Shutters in 2021.
Binoche’s jury members at the 78th Cannes include Halle Berry, Payal Kapadia, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sangsoo, Carlos Reygadas and Jeremy Strong.
