Venice (TDI): At the premiere of “The Voice of Hind Rajab” during the 82nd Venice Film Festival, audiences gave the longest 23-minute standing ovation to the film which is about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Directed by Franco‑Tunisian filmmaker, Kaouther Ben Hania, the emotionally charged docu‑drama recounts the last moments of little Hind Rajab.
Trapped in a car under Israeli fire on 29 January 2024, surrounded by the bodies of her uncles and cousins, the film shows her desperate, last phone call to the Palestinian Red Crescent. The impact of the call is multiplied by the use of actual recording of the phone call that Hind made, before dying.
Many journalists and film starts were moved to tears watching the film and the standing ovation burst with the chants of “Free Palestine.” Critics called it ‘‘the most powerful and urgent entry of this year’s festival.”
Reflecting on the impact, Ben Hania commented that Hind’s voice transcended personal tragedy, it became “the very voice of Gaza itself calling for help.” The film focuses on a singular human story that challenges dehumanizing narratives and brings urgency to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
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“Hind’s story carries the weight of an entire people, it is not hers alone. Her voice is one among 19,000 children who lost their lives in Gaza in the last two years alone,” actor Saja Kilani said, who made a statement on behalf of the entire film crew.
“It is the voice of every mother, father, doctor, teacher, artist, journalist, volunteer, paramedic, each with the right to live, to dream, to exist in dignity, yet all of it was stolen in front of unblinking eyes,” she added.
Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer, Joaquin Phoenix and Alfonso Cuarón serve as executive producers on the drama.
The film is competing for the Golden Lion, the grand prize of the Venice festival, one of the most prestigious awards in world cinema.
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