Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion awarded to American Jim Jarmusch

Director Kaouther Ben Hania was expected. Her film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, about Gaza, ultimately received only the Venice Film Festival's second-highest award, the Silver Lion. To everyone's surprise, Jim Jarmusch's Father, Mother, Sister, Brother won the Golden Lion at the 82nd Venice Film Festival on Saturday, September 6. This second-place finish didn't prevent the festival from closing, which was a highly political year this year, being punctuated by numerous gestures and declarations of solidarity with Gaza.

Jim Jarmusch's film develops a triptych between New Jersey, Dublin and Paris, carried by a prestigious cast, including Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits... Very sober in its staging, this work in which silences, gestures and glances often count more than dialogues, is intended as a tender reflection on the family. A sort of "anti-action film" , remarked Jim Jarmusch, 72 years old and figure of independent cinema, author of the screenplay. Wearing dark glasses and an "Enough " pin, Jim Jarmusch felt that "we don't need to talk politics to be political. It can endanger empathy and connection between people, which is the first step to solving the problems we have" .

It was chosen ahead of the Mostra favorite, The Voice of Hind Rajab , which won the Silver Lion, the second most important prize. A film that tells the story of a young child who died in Gaza after a long ordeal in a bullet-riddled vehicle. A tragedy denounced by the UN, which the Israeli army has not shed any light on.

On stage, French-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania dedicated the award to the workers of the Palestinian Red Crescent. Hind Rajab's story is "the tragic story of an entire people suffering from genocide inflicted by a criminal Israeli government that acts with impunity," she said, deeply moved.

This feature film, which received a 23-minute standing ovation, shocked festivalgoers last week. Its director relied on real recordings of a five-year-old Palestinian girl's cries for help, which had sparked intense emotion when they were first revealed. Hind Rajab was found dead inside a bullet-riddled car in Gaza City, several days after spending hours on the phone with the Palestinian Red Crescent on January 29, 2024.

The festival also named Best Director to American Benny Safdie, who gave Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, a golden role in The Smashing Machine , about an MMA fighter struggling with addiction. Italian actor Toni Servillo took home an award for his role as a widowed president at the end of his term caught up in moral dilemmas in La Grazia.

China's Xin Zhilei, in Cai Shangjun's The Sun Rises on Us All , received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance as a tormented woman who reappears when a former lover reappears. French director Valérie Donzelli's film À pied d'œuvre won the award for Best Screenplay. In this adaptation of Franck Courtès' autobiography ( À Pied d'œuvre , Gallimard, 2023), Bastien Bouillon plays a former successful photographer who abandoned a comfortable life to write. To the despair of his loved ones, despite his loneliness and pressure from his editor (Virginie Ledoyen), this divorced father will try to remain faithful to his choices by taking on a series of odd jobs to make up for his financial precariousness. Finally, the festival closed its doors with the French blockbuster Chien 51 , a thriller set in a futuristic and anxiety-inducing Paris, starring Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Without losing sight of Gaza, the ceremony ended with a message from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Mgr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who called for an end to "this war as quickly as possible. (…) We know that it no longer makes sense to continue. It is time to stop this downward spiral."