Venice Film Festival kicks off amid Gaza protests

The prestigious Venice Film Festival began with the premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia on Wednesday.

The 82nd edition is host to several Hollywood stars such as George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Dwayne Johnson.

The Gaza conflict is hogging the limelight outside the premises as well as the press meets, reports AP.

The festival on the Lido, opened La Grazia featuring Toni Servillo playing a fictional Italian president crippled by indecision.

“This was a moral dilemma that was interesting to tell,” Sorrentino said.

“I have thought for years that moral dilemmas are very interesting for storytelling.”

Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera informed AP that La Grazia was a surprise element.

“It’s a different Sorrentino from what we are used to,” Barbera said.

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And he added, “Far less baroque and formalistic than the previous films he made. It’s a very unexpected story.”

La Grazia is one of the 21 films playing in the main competition.

Others gunning for the Golden Lion are del Toro's Frankenstein , Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia and others.

Meanwhile, anti-war protesters assembled to underline the atrocities in Gaza.

A march is scheduled for Saturday evening.

There have been demands to cancel invitations to actors like Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler for their opinion.

However, Barbera said that the festival does not boycott artistes.

It also stays away from political observations.

The festival will continue till September 6.