TEHRAN-With the release of movie “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” and its trailer, many fans have compared the dystopian background of this movie and the miserable conditions of the people of Gaza after October 7 on social media platforms such as X and TikTok. 

 “The Hunger Games” trilogy, which is an adaptation of Suzanne Collins' novel, takes place in an unspecified future time, in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of “Panem”, located in North America. Panem is governed by a wealthy city called “the Capitol”, which receives its resources from 12 impoverished districts under military rule. The Capitol is ruled by the tyrannical President Snow. His system of government treats people like animals, imprisons and enslaves populations, limits their resources, and punishes uprisings and protests against this corruption and oppression. 75 years before the last Hunger Games, poorer neighborhoods rioted against the Capitol in a failed attempt at revolution. This gruesome competition, in which teenagers from different districts of Panem are forced by the Capitol to compete with each other to the death, is a kind of celebration and memorial for the defeat of this rebellion. 

Panem or Palestine?

Since the release of the first movie in “The Hunger Games” series in 2012, the metaphorical and political references of this work have attracted the attention of many writers and audiences. The structural realities of the dystopian world of Panem are not much different from the colonial and racist policies of Israel and the Zionists, and are palpable to anyone who has only a little knowledge of the situation in Gaza.

Snow's soldiers use highly advanced weapons and uniforms. Like Israeli soldiers, they are present around the clock in different districts of Panem to prevent possible riots. Meanwhile, the protagonist of the story, Katniss Everdeen, always has a bow and arrow with her, and Katniss' friends also wear not very special clothes. Like the confrontation between the stone and the gun in Gaza, the duality of the bow and the gun powerfully evokes the conflict between the oppressed and the oppressor. Interestingly, even some Zionist media such as the Jewish Chronicle have acknowledged this similarity. 

In the movie "Mockingjay - Part 1," after Katniss's living district is bombed, she, along with her friends and survivors of District 12, moves to District 13, which has remained politically independent and isolated from the rest of Panem. After a while, when she returns to her district and stands on its ruins, the place simultaneously looks like parts of Syria, Gaza, Iraq, or Afghanistan; in short, the Middle East.

Later in the movie, when the Katniss travels to visit District 8, a hospital in this district is bombed by the Capitol’s planes. After this action of the Capitol, Katniss said in front of the camera and addressing the people of the districts: “I’m in District 8 where the Capitol just bombed a hospital; Filled with unarmed men, women and children… if you think for one second that the Capitol will ever treat us fairly, you are lying to yourselves.”

Palestinian-American journalist, Ramzy Baroud writes in the Jordan Times about this part of the movie: “The Gaza connection became too stark to miss.” 

This part of the movie, which was very similar to the bombing of El-Wafa hospital in Gaza in the year of the release of the movie (2014), was compared and shared by many social media users with the bombing of Al-Ahli hospital following the Israeli genocide in Gaza after October 7.

Decryption of a dystopia

Capitol citizens are shown dehumanizing people from the districts, referring to them as “animals” - reminding some fans of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's comments describing Palestinians as “human animals” lately.

With military technology and a huge media apparatus, the Capitol rules the districts with unstoppable ruthlessness. Its rulers, who claim superiority over all the inhabitants of dystopia Panem, know no moral boundaries.

For more than 70 years, the people of the twelve districts of Panem have been condemned to a "collective punishment" with a gruesome race for the rebellion of their ancestors against the bloodthirsty Capitol, so as not to forget the power of the Capitol. Similarly, Israel's war crimes and genocide since October 7 have been labeled "collective punishment" against the Hamas offensive. Israeli sources claim that 1,200 innocent Israeli citizens were killed in this attack, while Israel has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians by bombing schools, refugee camps, and hospitals, as well as centuries-old churches and mosques. All this while United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asserts that the collective punishment of Palestinians is not justifiable by any Hamas actions.

District 13 was destroyed early enough that the rest of the districts didn't dare think anything other than the Capitol's insistence that resistance was futile. Also, president Snow was determined to describe those who defied the Capitol as "Radicals", not "Rebels".

In the eyes of the global audience

So far, we have seen many similarities between this film series and the situation in Gaza, but did the author really have the same intention? 

In a 2018 interview with the New York Times about her book, author Suzanne Collins explained that the essence of her story is an exploration of “just-war theory,” or “an attempt to define what circumstances give you the moral right to wage war and what is acceptable behavior within that war and its aftermath.”

She also has said that her inspirations for “The Hunger Games” came from a variety of sources, including the ancient Greek myth of Theseus, Roman gladiatorial games, contemporary TV, her father's experiences in the Vietnam War, and news footage of the Iraq War.

On the other hand, director Francis Lawrence, who also directed the previous three "The Hunger Games" films, along with more than 700 Hollywood celebrities signed a letter in support of Israel on October 12. 

But in general, even though the makers of the movie had no intention of dealing with Palestine, audiences around the world have deciphered the genocide and crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza from the symbols and metaphors of the story. “I’m calling it now, The Hunger Games movie is going to result in a huge uptick of protests in support of Palestine in the younger generations in America,” one TikTok user said in a video that now has over 82,000 likes.

International guilty conscience

Jamil Khader, professor of English and dean of research at Bethlehem University is one of those who, at the beginning of the release of the first movie in “The Hunger Games” series, explained its connection with Palestine. In an interview with Tehran Times, he said about why the audience made a connection between this film series and Israel's crimes in Gaza:

“There is the human element here and viewers everywhere are expressing their sympathy and solidarity for the victims of this genocide. Audiences often empathize with and identify with characters in movies. When they see similar situations in real life, even if their understanding of these situations or knowledge about them are limited, they might relate those real-world events back to the fictional narratives and characters with which they are more familiar.

Moreover, "The Hunger Games" might offer these audiences a clear-cut narrative and dichotomy between oppressor and oppressed that many people may think reflects the reality more accurately. Some Western commentators always contend that Zionist settler colonialism and apartheid politics is a complex issue, and many viewers have a gut feeling that it is not really as complex as the powers that be want them to believe.

Also, Palestine continues to be the issue for many people and it resonates with them because it reflects the condition of hopelessness that many people feel at the deeper level about their own disposability in a necrocapitalist system based on the destruction of people’s lives and bodies and making profit out of them.”

He added: “The fact that European and American audiences are drawing comparisons between the situation in Gaza and "The Hunger Games" film series can suggest a potential thirst for knowledge and a desire to understand global events at a more critical level. Citizens in Western metropoles can see how their governments are enabling this genocide, by channeling their tax dollars to fund genocides abroad instead of investing in the infrastructure and the basic needs of the citizens. This may motivate them to become more interested in geopolitical affairs and more critically informed about international issues, including those in the Middle East.”

As we have seen, in the eyes of many audiences around the world, this film series narrates the painful story of the people of Gaza. The people who live in a dystopian land and are ruled by Israeli leaders like Netanyahu, who are perhaps more terrible and violent than Snow and the rulers of the Capitol. The people of Gaza, like the people of the districts, will remain rebels until victory and they know that the Israeli leaders will not treat them fairly even for a second.