Amos Gitai criticises the brutality of war at Venice Film Festival

Israeli director Amos Gitai, 75, expressed deep concern over the scale of violence in the region during the Venice Film Festival, coinciding with the screening of his new film, 'The Road to Jericho'. In an interview with The Guardian, Gitai described the last three years as a period that has left many in Israel in a state of shock, arguing that the region is now dominated by forces that do not wish for peace. The film, a co-production between France, Britain, and Israel, focuses on the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar and its school, which faces the threat of demolition. By blending archival footage from the Oslo Accords era—including interviews with the late Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres—with current footage, Gitai contrasts the optimism of the 1990s with the current reality. He identified the 1995 assassination of Rabin as a devastating blow to political dialogue and described cinema as a tool for preserving collective memory and resisting oblivion. Gitai's appearance in Venice comes amid calls from groups like 'Venice4Palestine' to boycott cultural institutions linked to the Israeli government. Consequently, his film, which documents the suffering of Palestinians, has become a focal point in the complex debate surrounding cultural boycotts.