Warning! This re-enactment (not dramatization) of a real-life tragedy in Gaza is not for the faint-hearted. Even though there is no violence, the level of emotion displayed, and the fact that a young life is held so precariously in the balance, makes this film far more gripping than fictions like “Mission Impossible” and so many others.
The entire film takes place in the offices of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Ramallah, the West Bank, Palestine. The people represented are those who were present on the afternoon and evening of January 29th, 2024. Their interactions are recreations of the actual event, and the voices and sound of gunfire on the telephone are the actual recorded calls.
On that day, a call came to the center from a man in Germany. He reported that he’d received a call from a family member in Gaza who was trapped in a car under Israeli Defense Force (IDF) fire at that moment. The center got the number and called. A girl answered. As she described their situation, trapped in a car under fire from a nearby IDF tank, shots rang out, there was a cry, and the call went dead. Then another call from Germany saying there was still someone in the car, calling. The connection was re-established and we hear the voice of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, begging for someone to come and rescue her. As the conversation with the center continues we realize Hind is in that car with the bodies of her aunt, uncle, and other family members – all dead.
Tensions grow at the center as they try to arrange for a rescue team of Red Crescent ambulance people to travel the eight minutes from their base to the location of the little girl. A complex sequence of communications and approvals involving the Red Crescent, the Red Cross, and the IDF are required, and this takes time. And little Hind reports the tank is getting closer, begging for someone to come for her. The tension is intolerable, and the knowledge of a youngster all alone and in danger is too much for anyone – especially those with children of their own.
Director Kaouther Ben Hania (“Four Daughters”) was aware of the story, but then, on a flight layonver on Los Angeles, she heard a recording of the phone call:
“I contacted the Red Crescent and asked them to let me hear the full audio. It was about 70 minutes long, and harrowing. After listening to it, I knew, without a doubt, that I had to drop everything else. I had to make this film.”
The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, It received a record (almost 23 minute) standing ovation and the Grand Jury Prize.
In 2025 the film “No Other Land” won the Oscar for Best Documentary, but failed to get an American distributor. At first, it looked like “The Voice of Hind Rajab” would get a distributor, but as Hania described it, one by one the distributors dropped out, fearing retaliation for supporting a film that depicted a Palestinian, even a child, as a figure deserving of sympathy. Such is the state of unofficial political censorship in the US today. It was finally picked up by an independent film production and distribution company named Willa Productions.
This is a film every human being deserves, and needs, to see.
Runtime: One hour, 29 minutes
Availability: Limited theatrical release
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