CANNES: Sepideh Farsi is still in shock after an Israeli air strike in Gaza killed her documentary’s main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, weeks before its Cannes premiere on Thursday. “Why would you kill someone and decimate an entire family just because she was taking photos?” she said before the screening.

With Israel banning foreign media from entering the besieged Palestinian territory, Farsi reached out to Hassouna through video calls, turning more than 200 days of conversations into Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk. A day after Hassouna was told it had been selected for a sidebar section at the world’s most prestigious film festival, an Israeli missile pummelled her home in northern Gaza, killing her and 10 relatives.

“They were normal people. Her father was a taxi driver, she was a photographer, her sister was a painter and her little brother was 10 years old”, said Farsi. “My heart goes out to her mother, who lost six of her children, her husband and her home. She lost everything.” Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Gaza during the conflict, while Israeli leaders have expressed a desire to empty the territory of its inhabitants.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2025