Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania halted her current project upon hearing the desperate pleas of five-year-old Hind Rajab trapped in Gaza, leading to the creation of the film 'The Voice of Hind Rajab.' This narrative feature, which uses real audio recordings, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and became Tunisia's Oscar submission. Ben Hania emphasizes ethical storytelling to honor the child's voice without depicting her death.
In January 2024, Israeli forces surrounded the car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in Gaza, where she made heartbreaking calls for help to Red Crescent dispatchers. While at a Los Angeles airport promoting her previous film 'Four Daughters' for the Oscars, Ben Hania encountered the audio on social media. 'Once you hear her voice, you can’t unhear it,' she recalled in a Variety interview. Overwhelmed by helplessness, sadness, and anger, she abandoned another project to respond immediately.
'The Voice of Hind Rajab,' a Tunisia-France co-production, follows a Red Crescent team racing to rescue the child, centering the real recordings of her conversations. Opting for narrative reenactment over documentary, Ben Hania avoided showing Hind or the car's interior. 'Showing what was inside the car, or showing Hind herself, was never an option,' she explained. 'Showing the death of a child is not ethical.' From the start, she prioritized ethical restraint: 'From the beginning, I knew the recording — Hind’s voice — had to be central.'
The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival, earning one of the festival's longest standing ovations. It has since been selected as Tunisia's entry for the Academy Awards' best international feature and made the Oscar shortlist. Distribution has proven challenging amid scrutiny, requiring repeated fact-checking, as Ben Hania anticipated. Audiences have found it emotionally devastating and transformative.
Recently, at the Doha Film Festival, Ben Hania met Hind's mother, who evacuated Gaza but cannot watch the film. The mother attends screenings to observe reactions. 'In Gaza, she couldn’t give her daughter a proper funeral,' Ben Hania noted. 'For her, being with the audience, seeing their response, has been very consoling. It gives her strength.' Through the film, Ben Hania aims to ensure Hind's voice endures.
