Solidarity with Palestine roars back on Cannes Film Festival red carpet

French rapper Sofiane Zermani wears a Palestinian keffiyeh during the Cannes Film Festival. EPA

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Gaza has been front and centre at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, a year after the event largely ignored the continuing tragedy.

Actors, filmmakers and media figures have shown solidarity with Palestine and called for an end to the violence in Gaza, both on stage and on the red carpet.

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, wore a T-shirt that lists the names of nearly 5,000 children killed in Gaza to the photo call for The Six Billion Dollar Man, a documentary about his life that has its premiere at the festival.

Actor Jade Oukid, star of Sirat, wore a solidarity badge depicting a watermelon slice to the press conference for the film on Wednesday. French rapper and actor Sofiane Zermani wore a keffiyeh to the premiere of Sentimental Value that same day.

Julian Assange wears a T-shirt listing the names of children killed in Gaza at the Cannes Film Festival. AP

Unlike last year, when actors and filmmakers made only silent displays of solidarity towards Palestine after the festival put out statements to actively limit political speech, this year has seen leading festival figures become decidedly more vocal.

At the opening ceremony last week, French actress and jury president Juliette Binoche paid tribute to Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, the star of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a documentary by Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi. However, Binoche refrained from mentioning Israel by name.

Jade Oukid, left, wears a badge depicting a watermelon, which has emerged as a symbol of solidarity as it represents the colours of the Palestinian flag. Reuters

Binoche said: “The night before her death, she learnt that the film in which she appeared was selected here at Cannes. Fatima should have been among us tonight. Art remains. It’s the powerful testimony of our lives, our dreams, and we the viewers, we embrace it. May Cannes, where everything can change, contribute to that.”

On the eve of the festival, more than 380 actors, directors and filmmakers accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza in an open letter.

The signatories included Hollywood stars Ralph Fiennes, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar and former Cannes winner Ruben Ostlund.

Binoche added her signature two days later, along with actors Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed and director Guillermo del Toro.

Irish actor Paul Mescal, while promoting his film The History of Sound, which premiere at the festival, spoke about the impact that watching the Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land had upon him, and lamented its lack of traditional distribution.

“I remember sitting there in a packed-out theatre in Brooklyn and just being so profoundly upset that the film hadn’t, at that point, I still don’t know if it has received distribution there,” Mescal said.

“Having a cultural moment like that with a film like that, which is so wildly upsetting to see in a room. The story that I feel like needed to be told the most was being censored, it felt like almost. And the feeling in the room was one of great fear and sadness and it felt like the film was bigger than the four walls in which we were watching it.”

All and all, it's a welcome shift for the festival, which has long prided itself on supporting humanitarian causes.

Cannes, after all, was founded during the Second World War in direct protest against Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who had taken control of the Venice Film Festival.

Palestinian filmmakers Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser at photo call for Once Upon a Time in Gaza at Cannes. EPA

Also unlike last year, when no Palestinian films were selected in competition, this year's Un Certain Regard section includes Palestinian brothers Arab and Tarzan Nasser's Once Upon a Time in Gaza.

The film, which premiere on Monday and won the category, has had rave reviews. While Arab was thrilled with the film's reception, he told The National: “It's important for us as creatives to be in a festival such as Cannes. It's a dream of any director from all over the world. But as a Palestinian, it means something different.”

With all eyes on the annual event, which is still the most prominent platform for international cinema, every bit of representation matters – and will surely resonate across the world.