Filmmakers, artists, and anti-Zionist Jewish activists briefly interrupted the premiere of Bliss (Hemda) (2024) at the 49th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) yesterday evening, September 11, citing the film’s ties to the Israeli state.
The interruption took place shortly before Bliss screened at Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre. Directed by Shemi Zarhin, the film centers on an older married couple as they grapple with the everyday difficulties of family life. It is the only Israeli work featured in the lineup for the festival, running through September 15, and was selected for one of this year’s centerpiece spots.
According to the protesters and as listed on the movie’s trailer, Bliss was funded by Israeli institutions and companies including the Israeli Film Council, the Israeli Ministry of Sport and Culture, and the satellite TV company Yes; as such, screenings of the film effectively violate the guidelines of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Organized by groups including Jews Say No To Genocide, Artists Against Artwashing, and Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), the action drew attention to the current Israeli attacks in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, which have so far killed nearly 41,000 since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Footage taken during the protest interruption showed demonstrators on stage holding banners.
During an introduction by one of the festival programmers, activists jumped on stage, chanting “Free Palestine” and raising banners.
“Cameron Bailey, I say no to platforming. I saw no to normalizing genocide,” one of the activists shouted, addressing the film festival’s chief executive officer over the booing and jeers of agitated audience members.
Footage shows an audience member attempting to grab banners out of demonstrators’ hands while they began chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” while audio captured other spectators whistling and shouting, “Go home!”
After a few minutes, security escorted the protesters outside the theater, where a picket was simultaneously occurring by the entrance, a representative for the Toronto branch of WAWOG told Hyperallergic. No arrests were made.
Alongside the interruption of the screening, picketers also protested the film outside the theater.
Palestinian-Canadian documentary filmmaker Serene Husni, who participated in the outdoor picket, told Hyperallergic that TIFF programmers’ decision to screen an Israeli state-funded film during the ongoing assault sends a “hostile and political” message to Palestinian community members.
“[It feels like] the festival is endorsing this racism against us, which adds to the many other ways in which Palestinians and those in solidarity with us are experiencing anti-Palestinian racism,” Husni said. She also criticized the language of TIFF’s Programming Statement for Peace, published in April by Bailey and Chief Programming Officer Anita Lee, which called for an “immediate ceasefire and an end to the suffering of Palestinian civilians” as well as the return of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas militants.
“By not acknowledging that there is a genocide being committed against Palestinians these film programmers are not holding the Canadian government accountable to its obligations under International law,” Husni said, referring to provisional rulings by the International Court of Justice and alarms raised by human rights experts. “Endorsing the call for BDS is not only our moral duty as filmmakers or filmgoers, it is also our legal duty as Canadians.”
