Anti-Israel group Venice4Palestine sent a letter on Sunday demanding that the organizers of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival cancel an invitation to Gal Gadot, the Hollywood star from Israel, according to the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica.
Gadot was invited to the festival because she appears in the movie, In the Hand of Dante, by Julian Schnabel, which will be shown out of competition at Venice. The movie, based on a book by Nick Tosches, is about how a New York mob boss gets a copy of a priceless manuscript of The Divine Comedy, and it has two parallel storylines, one set in the 14th century, which follows Dante Alighieri, and one in the early 2000s, about the fate of the manuscript. Gadot reportedly plays roles in each timeline. The cast also includes Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, and Martin Scorsese.
Venice4Palestine also called on the festival organizers to rescind Butler’s invitation to the festival, because he has made appearances at events for a pro-Israel group.
Gadot was 'never able' to attend festival
Deadline reported that a representative for Gadot said that she “was never able nor was ever confirmed to attend the Venice Film Festival.” Gadot generally spends the summer with her family in Israel.
Photos posted recently on her Instagram account show her and her friends on a getaway at a resort.
Late last week, Venice4Palestine sent an open letter signed by 1,500 people, most of them Italian film industry professionals, urging the festival and the Biennale, which sponsors several other arts festivals as well as the film festival, to take a strong stand about the war in Gaza, against Israel and for Palestinians. The festival and the Biennale responded that they were “places of open discussion and sensitivity with regard to all the most pressing issues facing society and the world.”
The film festival opens Wednesday and runs until September 6.