The Voice of Hind Rajab

On January 29, 2024, Red Crescent volunteers in Gaza received a desperate call from a family trapped in a car under Israeli military fire. Moments later, only six-year-old Hind Rajab remained on the line, begging to be rescued. As paramedics had been killed in the area days earlier, the Red Crescent was forced to navigate a maze of military and governmental approvals before a rescue attempt could even be considered. Hind stayed on the call, scared and alone, as dispatchers tried to help.

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania won Oscar nominations for her hybrid documentary/drama Four Daughters. Her new film also mixes documentary and dramatic recreation, and this too has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Film. Using the recording of Hind’s call as the film’s backbone, Ben Hania recreates the efforts of the Red Crescent to rescue her.

Director’s Statement:

“I was in the middle of the Oscar campaign for Les filles d’Olfa, and mentally preparing to finally enter pre- production on a film I had been writing for ten years. Then, during a layover at LAX, everything shifted. I heard an audio recording of Hind Rajab begging for help. By then, her voice had already spread across the Internet. I immediately felt a mix of helplessness, and an overwhelming sadness. A physical reaction, like the ground shifted under me. I couldn’t carry on as planned. I contacted the Red Crescent and asked them to let me hear the full audio. After listening to it, I knew, without a doubt, that I had to drop everything else. I had to make this film. I spoke at length with Hind’s mother, with the real people who were on the other end of that call, those who tried to help her. I listened, I cried, I wrote. […] This story is not just about Gaza. It speaks to a universal grief. And I believe that fiction (especially when it draws from verified, painful, real events) is cinema’s most powerful tool. More powerful than the noise of breaking news or the forgetfulness of scrolling. Cinema can preserve a memory. Cinema can resist amnesia. May Hind Rajab’s voice be heard.” Kaouther Ben Hania

About as powerful as cinema gets. Its hybrid blend of documentary audio and devastating dramatisation is heart-wrenchingly, shatteringly effective.

John Nugent, Empire magazine

Discomfiting and emotionally devastating in the extreme, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s dramatised account of Hind’s death is utterly essential film-making.

Nick Howells, London Evening Standard

It is a fierce, vehement piece of work.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian