The Voice of Hind Rajab Review – Haunting, Palpable Emotion, Resonating
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Wednesday, 12 November 2025 14:28
- Written by Janet Walker
The Voice of Hind Rajab, from Willa, presents a haunting recreation of one of the many horrifying murders of civilians in Gaza, as a child is trapped and telephones the Red Crescent hoping to be rescued.
The film, which is Tunisia Official Academy Award entry, begins at the Red Crescent office in Gaza, just after the beginning of the Israeli assault. Similar to the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, in the film, operate a first responder type service with so much bureaucracy that to travel even a short distance, requires hours of coordination with Palestinian officials and governmental agencies.
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The office is comprised of the supervisor, Mahdi, played by Amer Hlehel, who is responsible for the safety of his team, both in the office, and the ambulance drivers whom he sends out, knowing there is a possibility they will be killed, as we see the list of names on the wall.
The call center supervisor Rana, played by Saja Kilani, is leaving for the day, and as she explains to Nisreen, the staff mental health counselor, played by Clara Khoury, she is exhausted. Just as she is leaving the telephone operator Omar, played by Motaz Malhees, receives a call from a man in Germany. His relatives are in Gaza, and their daughter is somewhere lost in the middle of the evacuation zone in Gaza, which is under bombardment.
Omar telephones the number, and we begin to hear the voice of a child (the actual audio tapes are used) desperate, terrified, and in the background the sounds of munitions exploding. For the Red Crescent workers, the war is taking its toll on them; tempers are flaring, nerves are shot, and their loved ones, and people are systemically being murdered.
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The child, whose identity remains shrouded throughout most of the film, is pleading with the workers to come and rescue her. She is eight minutes from the office, and Omar is as desperate to reach her as she is to be rescued. Soon, Rana takes over and the calming voice of a female seems to comfort her, and periodically throughout the calls we hear the very loud sounds of tank fire.
Throughout the phone calls, the child explains all her family members are sleeping and covered with blood, and she begs Rana to come and rescue her, she asks her to send her husband to save her. We hear the child's fear escalating into terror and then horror, and as the hours pass the team tries to explain bureaucracy to a six year old trapped in car with the corpses of her family. and the IDF tanks periodically blasting apartment buildings, panic.
After a day, nearly twelve hours of trying to gain the necessary clearance to send the ambulance to rescue the child, the team found her identity, and telephoned her mother, and then patched in Hind Rajab, and finally received the permissions to send out a team of first responders.
We see the ambulance slowly making its way to the car and then suddenly the sound . . . and we know.
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The Voice of Hind Rajab, which is a recreation from actual Red Crescent emergency assistance tapes of a six year old alone in a car full of corpses in Gaza after the invasion by the Israeli Defense Forces, is deeply impactful, polarizing, and infuriating.
There are two ways to watch the docudrama, one so you will not be overwhelmed by the raw emotional truth, is to view it as simply a profound cinematic experience.
The other is more challenging, and traumatic and that is viewing the film as the realities of this war. Knowing, and understanding that the murder of this child actually happened, and quite possibly, after hearing the tapes, and a general belief that the IDF were monitoring the communications, the hard truth is that the Israeli military kept the child alive and used her for bait knowing the Palestinians would attempt a rescue.
Either way, the ending is distressing, profound, and emotionally powerful.
The Voice of Hind Rajab, which premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival on September 3, 2025, received the longest standing ovation in festival history at 23 minutes. Director Kaouther Ben Hania won the Grand Jury Prize.
The Voice of Hind Rajab opens in the U.S. December 17, 2025. See it.
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Country: Tunisia.
Language: Arabic, with English subtitles.
Runtime: 89 minutes.
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania.
Producer: Nadim Chikhrouha, Odessa Rae, James Wilson.
Executive Producer: Karim Ahmad, Samar Akrouk, Badie Ali, Hamza Ali, Sawsan Asfari, Alfonso Curon, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Dede Gardner, Frank Biustra, Jonathan Glazer, Jorie Graham, Ted Haddock, Ali Jaafar, Amed Khan, Jemima Kleiner, Baptiste Leroy, Mohannad Malas, Rooney Mara, Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Gabriele Bebe Moratti, Hana Al Omair, Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Guillaume Rambourg, Michella Rivera-Gravage, Regina K. Scully, Ramez Sousou, Tiziana Sousou, Elizabeth Woodward.
Writer: Kaouther Ben Hania.
Cast: Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Clara Khoury, Amer Hlehel.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.
