Fatma Hassona, the Palestinian subject of the forthcoming Cannes 2025 documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” was killed Wednesday by a direct Israeli missile strike on her home in Gaza. The Palestinian photojournalist and artist was just 25 years old.
Hassona, who was known as “Fatem” by her friends and loved ones, died just one day after Cannes sidebar ACID announced it would be showing Iranian director Sepideh Farsi’s new documentary, “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” as part of its 2025 lineup. A co-production between Iran, France and Palestine, the documentary explores Farsi’s relationship with Hassona and the “window” she provided to “see fragments of the ongoing massacre of Palestinians.”
The attack on Hassona’s home killed her, as well as nine members of her family.
“We, filmmakers and members of the ACID team, met Fatma Hassona when we discovered Sepideh Farsi’s film ‘Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,’ during the Cannes program,” the ACID team wrote in a statement posted Thursday on Instagram. “Her smile was as magical as her tenacity: bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, the grief and the hunger. Her story reached us, we rejoiced at each of her appearances to know she was alive, we feared for her.”
“Yesterday, we learned with horror that an Israeli missile targeted her building, killing Fatem and her family members. We had watched and programmed a film where the life force of this young woman was nothing short of miraculous,” the statement continued. “This is no longer the same film that we will carry, support and present in all theaters, starting with Cannes. All of us, filmmakers and spectators, must be worthy of her light.”
Hassona’s photos depicting the devastating impact of the Israeli military’s attacks on Gaza and its Palestinian citizens gained widespread recognition online and were published by multiple news outlets. Her and her family’s deaths are the latest tragedies to come from Israel’s bombing campaign on Gaza, which began in retaliation to Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
