Review: Hear her voice
An expertly told, heartbreaking tale that shakes us out of indifference.
Wilfred Okiche
On 29 January 2024, Red Crescent volunteers received an emergency call from Hind Rajab, a five-year-old child trapped in a car in Gaza.
Israeli forces had shelled the car carrying a family fleeing their home. Six of her family members died in the attack and, at the end of the ordeal, so did she. Media investigations concluded an Israeli tank had likely fired 335 rounds into the car.
After hearing some of the heartrending audio of the girl’s pleas for help, Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania was moved to dramatise Hind Rajab’s harrowing final moments.
At this year’s Venice Film Festival, The Voice of Hind Rajab won a Silver Lion award and received a record 23-minute standing ovation. The film is Ben Hania’s unequivocal repudiation of a humanitarian crisis.
In films such as Four Daughters and The Man Who Sold His Skin, Ben Hania has previously been drawn to hot-button issues like immigration and terrorism.
Her work often blends reality and fiction in ways that can be ethically fraught. Ben Hania obtained permission to use the actual recording of the phone call. She then inserted these audio recordings of Hind Rajab’s voice into a gripping procedural that re-enacts the efforts of the Red Crescent first responders.
Nothing about The Voice of Hind Rajab feels trivial. The actors are committed; the camerawork creates a suffocating unease. The violence is off screen but never less than devastating.
Discussions about cinema being able to change the world can be redundant, but The Voice of Hind Rajab is proof that when presented skilfully, passionately, and urgently, cinema can push back against collective indifference.
And because of that, a voice can speak even from beyond the grave.