In January 2024, a 6-year-old girl trapped inside a bullet-riddled car in Gaza City begged for someone to rescue her. Contact was lost with the first ambulance. Hind Rajab, five family members and two medics were found dead 12 days later.
The impact of the story, and the audio of Hind’s voice from that call, has been vast, inspiring songs, protest movements and now a film from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which debuted Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival, is a shattering document of the Israel-Hamas war, set entirely inside the dispatch center of the Palestine Red Crescent Society rescue service. The film uses the real audio of Hind's call, while actors portray the first responders.
“When you hear her voice you feel powerless,” Ben Hania told The Associated Press recently.
Hind’s cousin, Layan, who was in the car, had told family members that Israeli forces were firing on them before she was killed. The Red Crescent said Israeli troops fired on its ambulance. Asked for comment, the military said the incident is “still being reviewed,” without elaborating.
Listening to the audio, which was shared widely on social media in the 12 days after the Red Crescent lost contact with its medics and Hind, Ben Hania said she felt like she needed to do something, to help the innocent voice she was hearing.
“I felt like she was asking me to rescue her,” Ben Hania said. “It’s not rational what I’m saying, because I knew the tragedy already happened. I asked of myself, ‘What I can do,’ and I only know one thing: how to tell stories.”
Her resolve intensified after she heard the full recordings of the calls that day. The urgent imperative to make the film meant that she would have to put another project, which she was preparing to shoot, on hold, and work more quickly than she ever had before.
“There was kind of an emergency that I was feeling and I contaminated everybody,” she said.
Her first step was to talk to Hind’s mother, Wissam Hamadah, who gave her blessing and told her all about her daughter, from her love of the sea to her dreams of being a dentist. Then Ben Hania went about gathering her cast, including Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Clara Khoury and Amer Hlehel. It was important to her that her actors were Palestinian.
In some ways, everything was there for her to draw on with the real transcripts. She just needed to find a cinematic way to do it, and the language of movies was available to her. Here was, in essence, a rescue mission, full of urgency, high emotions and frustrating bureaucratic red tape, that plays out like a Hollywood thriller, without a happy Hollywood ending.
“What is happening in this story and in Gaza in general, is something that is beyond fiction,” Ben Hania said. “I didn’t have to invent anything, which is crazy. The story, the recording, starts with her cousin dying. And now there is another child who we must rescue.”
One thing she didn't want to show was a little girl trapped in a shot-out car full of dead bodies. Ben Hania's camera stays purposefully put inside the Red Crescent.
“For me, it wasn’t very interesting to show the images of the horror because we see them all over the internet. It doesn’t mean that they have no impact, but it’s like the world became insensitive,” Ben Hania said. “The choice to tell the story from this perspective for me was the best way. I felt like I was given something sacred, the voice of this little girl.”
The making of the film was emotional for everyone. It wasn’t uncommon for the crew members to be in tears. Then there were the actors, who were responding to Hind’s real voice, reciting nearly verbatim what their real-life counterparts said.
“They are great actors but there was a genuine reaction from them to hear this voice,” she said. “It was beyond acting.”
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” was expected to be one of the most affecting films of the festival and awards season. After the film was completed and selected for Venice, Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón and Jonathan Glazer all joined as executive producers.
Tunisia has also decided “The Voice of Hind Rajab” will be its candidate for best international feature at the Oscars. Ben Hania has two Oscar nominations to her name already, for best documentary (“Four Daughters”) and best international feature (“The Man Who Sold His Skin”).
The conflict in Gaza has loomed over the festival from its start, with calls to disinvite actors for their views, questions to filmmakers and actors about an indie film company’s funding ties to the Israeli military, and a large-scale protest that drew thousands this weekend.
The Health Ministry says over 63,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 22-month war, which began when Hamas-led fighters abducted 251 hostages and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals, but 48 remain in Gaza, with around 20 believed to be alive.
Ben Hania said the Hind Rajab Foundation, a legal group based in Belgium, was not involved.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” does not yet have theatrical distribution in North America, but Ben Hania hopes that it will be seen “all over the world.”
“I don’t want to tell the audience what to take away from the film,” she said. “I just want them to see it.”
