A gut-wrenching new film about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year received a 23-minute standing ovation after its premiere at the Venice film festival on Wednesday.
The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by Tunisian film-maker Kaouther Ben Hania, had been described by critics as ‘‘the most powerful and urgent entry of this year’s festival”. It left much of the audience and many journalists sobbing as it was screened for the first time.
The film reconstructs the final, frantic phone call of Hind Rajab, who in January 2024 was trapped in the wreckage of a car in northern Gaza, surrounded by the bodies of her uncles and four young cousins.
Hiding beneath a seat and the only one still alive, Hind managed to contact the Palestinian Red Crescent by phone. However, the child and the medics looking for her were killed by Israeli forces.
The Israeli military has not announced a formal investigation into the case.
Ben Hania said: “When I first heard the voice of Hind Rajab, there was something beyond her words. It was the voice of Gaza itself calling for help – and no one could reach her.”
The film makes chilling use of the real phone recordings of Hind, but tells the story through a dramatised Red Crescent team which is trying to coordinate her rescue.
In a statement on behalf of the entire film-making team, actor Saja Kilani said: “The voice of Hind Rajab does not need our defence. This film is not an opinion or a fantasy. It is anchored in truth.
“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.
“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. And these are only the voices we know. Beyond every number is a story that never got to be told.”
Motaz Malhees, a Palestinian actor from Jenin, said: “When I was 10 years old, I lived this life. Hearing Hind’s voice took me straight back to my childhood. I felt as if I had died a thousand times. This wasn’t acting. This was my life.”
Hind’s mother, Wissam Hamada, said she hoped the film would help end the war.
“The whole world has left us to die, to go hungry, to live in fear and to be forcibly displaced without doing anything,” Hamada told AFP by phone from Gaza City, where she lives with her five-year-old son.
Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer, Joaquin Phoenix and Alfonso Cuarón serve as executive producers on the drama. Phoenix and Rooney Mara, who also joined the project as executive producer, were in Venice and hugged the cast after the premiere.
AFP contributed to this report
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