Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania has already carved out a career of considerable acclaim. Her The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020) became the first Tunisian film nominated for an Oscar. She followed it with the tragic Four Daughters, which went from a Cannes premiere to another Oscar nod, this time in the Best Documentary category. Don’t bet against her latest work, The Voice of Hind Rajab, following suit; it’s a powerful, potent film.
Playing in competition at Venice Film Festival, this is a feature film ripped from the headlines, as they say, blending real-life audio and some stellar performances from Ben Hania’s cast. The film is a 90-minute ordeal, one that truly lays bare the horrors of the conflict in Gaza.
Set in January 2024, it takes place entirely in a Red Crescent emergency call centre, manned by frazzled volunteers close to understandable meltdown.
Then comes the call nobody should ever have to field: a five-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, is trapped in a car in Gaza, under fire from Israeli soldiers. Surrounded by her dead relatives, she is alone, terrified and pleading to be rescued.
“Come get me,” she cries, repeatedly, her voice interspersed with gunfire. Back in the call centre, Omar (Motaz Malhees) takes the lead. “You’re trained for this,” he’s told, but surely nobody is prepared for ever dealing with a situation as appalling as this.
The Voice of Hind Rajab receives 24-minute standing ovation
The concept for Ben Hania’s film borrows from Hollywood thrillers such as Phone Booth (2002) with Colin Farrell and The Call (2013) with Halle Berry, which have left their protagonists hanging on the telephone, dealing with a tense, taut situation. But rarely has a director used this set-up to bring something so real, so horrifying, to life. Listening to the actual recordings of Hind’s voice is unbearable at times, her bravery utterly astounding, as she finds herself caught in the crossfire of a warzone.
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From left, Saja Kilani, director Kaouther Ben Hania, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees, and producers Nadim Cheikhrouha, Odessa Rae, Jim Wilson, Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, pose with a portrait of Hind Rajab, on the red carpet for the movie The Voice of Hind Rajab at Venice Film Festival. AFP -
Ben Hania holds a portrait of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who died in Gaza. AFP -
Khoury and Amer Hlehel on the red carpet. Getty Images -
Phoenix and Mara arrive for the screening. Reuters -
Kilani, who recreated Hind's call in the film, said at the premiere that the child's 'story carries the weight of an entire people'. EPA -
The cast and producers on the red carpet in Venice. Getty Images -
Malhees holds up a portrait of Hind Rajab. Getty Images
Amid this, you’re left to look around a functional office space, where pinboards on walls are filled with pictures of those who have been lost in this appalling conflict. It’s here where Omar comes to blows with his colleague Mahdi (Amer Hlehel), who initially refuses to call in the rescue patrol to drive through the streets and locate this girl. He “needs the green light” before sending a team in, a by-the-book attitude that enrages Omar, as tensions escalate.
“It’s because of people like you that we’re occupied,” Omar screams at one point, before both men are forced to cool off in the toilets, playing video games on their phones. The sheer helplessness they feel is something you’ll feel too, alongside an overwhelming sense of despair. The end credits, telling us that 355 bullets hit the car Hind and her family were in, shows real footage of the incident, blurred-out images of death and destruction.
The film comes produced by an array of Hollywood personnel, including Brad Pitt (via his Plan B outfit), fellow actors Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, and directors Jonathan Glazer and Alfonso Cuaron. Whether their connection to the film, and Ben Hania’s rising profile, is enough to get people to watch it remains to be seen. But this is one of the most devastating works to come out of the terrors that have occurred since the October 7 attacks nearly two years ago.
Hind’s voice has already become a symbol of the crisis, after excerpts from her distress call spread across the internet. But this recreation is on another level. While it can be hard to get people to care about conflicts far removed from their own lives, this simply cannot be ignored. It will break you.
