Former hostage Mia Schem has reported that staff at the Cannes film festival confiscated the yellow ribbon she was wearing to show solidarity with the hostages still held in Gaza.
The 22-year-old, who has dual Israeli French citizenship, said that security personnel took it from her as soon as she arrived on the red carpet at the 78th annual film festival.
“I came to support the struggle to bring back the hostages,” Schem told Israel’s Channel 12 News. “Unfortunately, at the entrance to the red carpet, the festival organisers confiscated the ribbon I was supposed to wear.”
She said that she “refused to concede” and instead wore one of the hostage ribbons belonging to her delegation on her dress.
Fifty-eight hostages are believed to still be held captive in Gaza, with around 20 confirmed to be alive.
Schem had been invited to Cannes by the local Jewish community to raise awareness of the hostages’ plight. On Friday, she was hosted by the mayor of Nice and addressed the city council.
The tattoo artist was one of 251 people abducted from southern Israel by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attacks. She was released on Nov. 30, 2023, after 54 days in captivity, as part of a ceasefire agreement that included the exchange of hostages for Palestinian security prisoners.
Since her release, Schem has spoken publicly about the abuse she suffered while in captivity.
The confiscation of the ribbon follows the publication of an open letter written to the Cannes film festival, signed by more than 370 film industry figures, condemning what they described as “passivity” of the industry over the war in Gaza.
It was signed by leading actors, including Mark Ruffalo, Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem.
It slammed the killing in April of the photojournalist Fatma Hassona, who was the protagonist of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk. The documentary was selected for screening in the ACID (“Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema”) section of the prestigious event.
They wrote: “We are ashamed of such passivity,” the letter states. “Why is it that cinema, a breeding ground for socially committed works, seems to be so indifferent to the horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers?”
The airstrike that killed Hassona was targeting a Hamas terrorist involved in attacks on soldiers and civilians, the IDF said.
The letter, however, made no mention of the hostages still being held.
During the film festival, which ended yesterday, a number of protests against Israel took place, including one led by Palestinian twin directors Arab and Tarzan Nasser during the screening of their film, Once Upon a Time in Gaza.
The Cannes Film Festival has not issued an official statement regarding the removal of Schem’s ribbon.
