In a statement to Anadolu Agency on Wednesday, Sanjak explained that the American film distribution company halted the film's release two days after he contacted them and explained that his activity in the "Resilience Fleet" was "completely peaceful."
He said, "Two days after I spoke with them, they informed me via phone and email that they had stopped showing the film because it was being shown with the Global Resilience Fleet."
The Turkish director had planned to screen his film in Türkiye on October 3, as part of an agreement with the American company, but the latter canceled the deal due to his participation in a solidarity event with Gaza.
Sanjak emphasized that he could not remain indifferent to the genocide being committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, emphasizing that he would continue to stand in solidarity with Palestine despite all obstacles.
For days, the ships participating in the flotilla have been sailing toward Gaza carrying humanitarian aid. At dawn on Wednesday, the flotilla announced that it was approaching within 120 nautical miles (about 222 kilometers) of Gaza's shores.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that more than 50 ships from the flotilla approached the coast of Gaza, and that Israel was continuing preparations to intercept them. Israel has previously engaged in piracy against ships heading to Gaza, seizing them and deporting the activists on board.
This is the first time that dozens of ships have set sail together toward Gaza, home to approximately 2.4 million Palestinians, in a collective attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Strip.
On March 2, it tightened the blockade by closing all crossings into Gaza, preventing any food, medicine, or humanitarian aid from entering the Strip, plunging the Strip into famine despite the backlog of aid trucks at its borders.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving 66,097 martyrs and 168,536 wounded, most of them children and women, and a famine that has claimed the lives of 453 Palestinians, including 150 children.
Israel has been blockading the Gaza Strip for 18 years, leaving approximately 1.5 million Palestinians out of a population of approximately 2.4 million in the Strip homeless after their homes were destroyed by the war of extermination.
