For the film festival circuit, this was supposed to be the year when Gaza and the Middle East faded into the background.
Since 7 October, Gaza has been the dominant subject at major film festivals, rocking Berlin, dominating Venice, and making headlines in Toronto, Cannes and beyond.
Switzerland’s Locarno has been among the most hospitable fairs to the Palestinian cause and to Middle Eastern voices.
Palestinian and Lebanese filmmakers and films, such as Maha Haj’s Upshot (2004) and Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza (2025), have featured prominently in the festival’s selections in recent years.
Last year, Locarno’s Italian director, Giona A Nazzaro, delivered an impassioned speech denouncing “the intolerable destruction of Gaza and the terrible humanitarian tragedy that is afflicting the Palestinian people with the violence of bombs and famine”.
