🧵Switzerland’s Locarno has been among the most hospitable fairs to the Palestinian cause and to Middle Eastern voices. In the 79th iteration of the iconic festival, Palestine, Iran and Israel’s genocide in Gaza continued to dominate debate, writes Joseph Fahim ⤵️

From the outset, Gaza maintained a visible presence at Locarno, writes Fahim. On 9 August, nearly 100 demonstrators unfurled a large pall bearing the names of the tens of thousands of people killed by Israel in Gaza in front of the Campari Lounge, at the heart of the festival

At the closing ceremony, several filmmakers voiced their support for the Palestinian cause while denouncing Israel’s military aggression across the region

Palestinian documentarian Mohanad Yaqubi accepted the Special Jury Prize in the Filmmakers of the Present competition for Revolutionaries Never Die. It is an essay film composed of excerpts from documentaries and television reports made by Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab

“If the closing speeches suggested a unified stance in support of Palestine, the fractious attitudes of the public toward the thorny politics of the region were fully exposed during the discussion of Yaqubi’s film” ✍️ Joseph Fahim

Some audience members found the 40-year-old footage too misleading for the current political climate. Speaking for nearly five minutes, an Israeli woman complained that the film did a disservice to the peace efforts undertaken by leftists of her ilk, writes Fahim

“It is a palpably fascistic view of art and cinema, but it is also a sobering reminder of the oppressive culture that has emerged in the wake of 7 October and Trump, a culture that refuses to tolerate any voices but its own” ✍️ Joseph Fahim

“Equally affecting, if less formally accomplished, is Concrete Land, the debut feature by Palestinian-Jordanian documentarian Asmahan Bkerat." The film follows the Najar family, one of the last Afro-Palestinian Bedouin clans living in tents on the outskirts of Amman