‘Stand beside Palestine’: Filmmaker Anuparna Roy uses Venice win to call for solidarity with Gaza
First-time filmmaker Anuparna Roy has used her platform at the Venice Film Festival to declare solidarity with the victims in Gaza and advocate for the Palestinian cause.
Anuparna Roy made history at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, winning the Orizzonti Award for Best Director for her film Songs of Forgotten Trees.
During her acceptance speech at the festival’s closing ceremony on Saturday, she used the platform to voice strong support for Palestine, where she said it is everyone's duty to stand with Palestine, and claimed so fiercely, despite the possibility of hate that she might receive from "her country.”
“Every child deserves peace, freedom and liberation, and Palestine is no exception. It is a responsibility to think for a moment and stand beside Palestine,” she said.
“I might upset my country, but it doesn’t matter to me anymore,” she added.
Roy became the first Indian to win the Orizzonti Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival.
She noted that Songs of Forgotten Trees is an attempt “to reclaim narrative space for the unseen, the complex, and the quietly resilient.”
Roy’s speech is particularly significant as it comes just months after New Delhi and Tel Aviv pledged to enhance their military ties in July. India is the world's largest purchaser of Israeli weapons.
In recent years, India has also become a major co-producer of Israeli arms.
Indian human rights activists and scholars have raised concerns about India’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.
The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended its arms supplies to the Israeli regime, citing India’s “national interest.”
Since October 2023, Israel has reportedly killed 64,522 Palestinians, predominantly women and children, as part of its genocidal war against the besieged territory, according to Gaza's health ministry.
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