Actors, filmmakers protest Israeli genocide during premier of star-studded historical drama on Palestine
Actors and filmmakers have used the premier of a historical drama about the Palestinian struggle, from the British colonial rule up to the current day, to protest the Zionist regime’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Palestine 36, as the drama is titled, premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Friday.
Marching across the red carpet, the cast and others used the event to make a statement by holding Palestinian flags, signs reading “Stop the genocide,” and symbolic props with fake blood.
Leading role Karim Daoud Anaya toted a plastic bag dripping with fake blood and containing a camera and a Palestinian keffiyeh (headscarf).
Friday marked the 700th day of the war of genocide that has claimed the lives of nearly 64,400 Palestinian, mostly women and children, so far.
Hundreds of the victims have succumbed to death from starvation caused by the regime’s near-total siege of the coastal sliver.
Speaking on the red carpet, director Annemarie Jacir said, “I never imagined that I would be here during a genocide, a genocide of our own people,” urging global governments to act. “Now is the time. There is no tomorrow.”
She has extensively used archival footage, colorized to show that the struggle for Palestinian sovereignty is, in her own words, “still going on.”
The director noted that the war had lent the footage added meaning, highlighting places that “were being destroyed and … didn’t exist anymore.”
The drama centers on Yusuf, portrayed by Anaya, and other Palestinians navigating life under British colonial rule in the 1930s, prior to the regime’s forcing itself upon the regional Palestinian territories during a heavily-Western-backed war.
The film, which took eight years to make, stars well-known actors Jeremy Irons, Hiam Abbas, and Liam Cunningham.
The Friday development came shortly after a documentary depicting the plight of a Palestinian child, who was martyred last year after Israeli forces struck the car she was hiding in with hundreds of tank shells, drew a 22-minute-long standing ovation, tearful reactions, and waving Palestinian flags.