Film Festival: Leises cinema instead of a morals: Jarmusch wins in Venice

The main prize for a deeply artistic, quiet film, the second most important award for political overwhelming cinema: The winners of the Venice Film Festival testify to the area of ​​tension in which art is currently moving. Characterized by crisis mood and wars, the cinema fluctuates between reflection and charges.

The golden lion received US director Jim Jarmusch for “Father Mother Sister Brother”, an episode film about family dynamics. The great price of the jury went to Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, a documentary drama about a killed Palestinian girl.

“These were the two films that moved us the most,” said jury chair Alexander Payne. “It was the two films that opened us to tears.”

Jim Jarmusch’s poetic lion winner

In three episodes, “Father Mother Sister Brother” is devoted to the complex relationships between adult children and their parents – and the speechlessness that often prevails. Formally well thought out, the episode film convinced the jury with clever, subtle observations. In “Father Mother Sister Brother”, gestures, looks and breaks reveal more about the relationships between the family members than words could.

Among other things, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling and Vicky Krieps play. “The way you understand things has its own soul and poetry,” said Blanchett to Jarmusch before the premiere. “We always try to define and categorize things as you allow all these strange connections that do not necessarily result in the usual meaning – for which I am really grateful in view of the situation of the world.”

Ben Hania’s shattering documentary drama

Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab” in turn is a partly documentary, partly fictional film that tells of the last moments in the life of the Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in the Gaza Strip. It died in January 2024 when his family escaped from the city of Gaza. The film and several independent examinations suggest that Hind Rajab and parts of their family were killed by Israeli armed forces. Israel’s military denies this.

The massacre of Hamas and other terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023, triggered by the Gaza War, does not matter in the film. According to the director of real audio recording, the central element is: While the girl stuck in the already killed car between family members killed, it was repeatedly on the phone for around three hours with volunteers from the Palestinian Red Half moon and pleaded for help.

Can you critically evaluate a documentary drama about the war?

The audience hears the real Hind Rajab in the film – confused, desperate and always fleeing. In between, shots from the lavish recording sound until ultimately falls silent. This shakes many spectators sustainably: some cry when they leave the cinema. In the end there are the longest -standing ovation of the festival and after the premiere people who swivel Palestinian flags in the cinema hall.

It is a film that relies on the emotional overwhelming of his viewers – and which this was impressive in Venice. However, some also spoke of calculus and emotional hostage -taking – the feeling of being unable to do anything other than being overwhelmed by history, and not being able to evaluate the half -documentary work according to film -critical standards.

The war influences the cinema

The war, the Venice Film Festival impressively show, has not only arrived on the cinema screen. It also influences the way people talk about art.

So also at the award ceremony. Jarmusch wore a badge with the inscription “Enough” on stage, which Kaouther Ben Hania had also attached to her dress. The badge referred to the Gaza War, Ben Hania said in her speech: “I ask for an end to this unbearable situation. There is enough enough.” It accused the Israeli government of committing genocide.

Several other filmmakers, including Indya Moore from Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother”, had argued in the same direction during the festival. Israel and the German government also reject the accusation of genocide.

Back to the intermediate tones

Cinema can, that shows the reception of “Hind Rajab”, solidify one -sided narrative. But it can also create empathy. At the award ceremony, Jarmusch said that art could “create a connection between us, which is actually the first step to solve our problems”.

He referred to the Jewish filmmaker Benny Safdie, who was awarded the directing price for “The Smashing Machine”. Safdie had previously said: “Empathy is more important than ever today. I think that’s something we should all try.”

After the award ceremony, Jarmusch was asked if he wanted his film to come to the cinema in Israel. Not if the Israeli government had money involved, the 72-year-old replied. To add directly: “There are wonderful people in Israel, with a strong spirit that I love. I don’t like to generalize.”

There are again the intermediate tones that also distinguish Jarmusch’s winning film. Indya Moore aptly formulated it in Venice. There are no heroes and antiheroes in Jarmusch’s stories, she said. “It’s just people.” Perhaps it was this attitude that the jury ultimately convinced that Jarmuss was the worthy Löwen winner.