Film Forum

WINNER, GRAND JURY PRIZE, 2025 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

January 29, 2024: a 5-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, is trapped in a car under heavy fire in Gaza, the sole survivor. Her emergency calls reach the volunteers of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, who desperately attempt to calm and rescue her—the latter obstructed by IDF checkpoints and the unlikelihood of safe passage. In THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (FOUR DAUGHTERS, THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN) blends the actual phone recordings—which went viral several weeks after this incident with dramatizations of the emergency workers racing against time, and the situation's emotional impact, to coordinate paramedics who could save her. By focusing on one life—and the lives of volunteers who risk their lives to save civilians—Ben Hania brings humanity and urgency to a war that has killed or caused the deaths of over 70,000, per a recent UN estimate. [Note: the film was made in partnership and collaboration with Rajab's family and Palestine Red Crescent.]

2025     89 MIN.     TUNISIA / FRANCE     WILLA     IN ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Trailer

Reviews

“Exceptionally powerful... The film takes their helplessness in the moment and makes it something cosmic and civilizational.”
– Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine

“Fierce, urgent, and heart-shattering... There can be no doubt about which movie has set the Venice film festival ablaze—it is this one, from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania.”
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“The most vital film of the decade... an astonishing blend of dramatization and reality.”
– Iana Murray, GQ

“A humanist marvel... This isn’t just a film you’ll keep thinking about, it’s one you’ll live with... an astounding cinematic achievement.”
– Radhika Seth, Vogue

“It’s impossible not to be moved.”
– Guy Lodge, Variety

“Extraordinary... superbly acted, beautifully shot and shaped and edited with rare urgency... An astounding feat of dramatising real events with an eye on the cinematic.”
– Leila Latif, Little White Lies

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