Fatma Hassona, Palestinian Protagonist of Cannes Film, Killed in Missile Strike

“What is the daily life of Palestinian people under war?” filmmaker Sepideh Farsi sought to answer from Paris. In order to learn, she was connected by a friend in Cairo to photojournalist Fatma Hassona, who became the director’s eyes and ears in Gaza for Farsi’s documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk. Set to premiere at L’ACID in Cannes in May, the film centered on their long-distance communication, with Hassona’s experience in Gaza providing a window to her friend from afar. When their film’s selection was announced, Farsi invited Hassona to Cannes with her, the latter agreeing so long as she could return to Gaza once it was over. Only a few weeks before their film’s premiere, Hassona was killed on April 16 alongside her family by an Israeli missile, the festival confirmed the following morning. She was 25.

“We had watched and programmed a film in which this young woman’s life force was nothing short of miraculous,” L’ACID shared in a statement to Vulture. “It is no longer the same film that we will be supporting, supporting, and presenting in every theater. All of us, filmmakers and viewers, must be worthy of her light.”

L’ACID’s statement also included Farsi’s memories of working alongside Hassona for the months she recorded their conversations on FaceTime. “I filmed, catching the moments offered by our video calls, what Fatem was offering, fiery and full of life,” Farsi explained. “I told myself I had no right to fear for her, if she herself was not afraid. I clung to her strength, to her unwavering faith.”

After a short armistice between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza that ended in March, violence has continued across the region in both Gaza and the West Bank. Per Le Monde, the IDF stated that the missile attack was intended to target a “Hamas member” and that “precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties.” In a statement to the French newspaper Libèration, Farsi said Hassona and her family were crushed by “a finger that pressed on a button.”

The film is still set to premiere next month, now an unintended memorial for a diligent journalist and writer. “Her smile was as magical as her tenacity,” L’ACID wrote, “bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning and hunger.”

In her statement, Farsi included memories of her last conversation with Hassona prior to her death. “Before the pixels faded out at the end of the dying network, we said ‘see you tomorrow’ and she gave me a bright smile,” she recalled. “It is this smile that I will keep as the last image of Fatem. And I think of her words, when I asked her what she felt when photographing shredded bodies after a massacre: ‘I want people to see images of this genocide, and for them to know what we are going through.’”

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