“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s searing film about a five-year-old girl killed in Gaza, won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize in Venice after a 23-minute standing ovation.
The Voice of Hind Rajab, a devastating new film about the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza, won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.
The film, directed by French-Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, recounts the real-life story of Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces while trying to evacuate Gaza with her family in January 2024.
The premiere on Wednesday left much of the audience in tears and drew a 23-minute standing ovation.
Ben Hania and her cast, dressed in black, wept as they were met with applause, chants, and shouts of “Free Palestine!” inside the festival’s main 1,032-seat cinema.
“We see that the narrative all around the world is that those dying in Gaza are collateral damage, in the media,” Ben Hania told journalists before the premiere. “And I think this is so dehumanizing.
‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ Receives Standing Ovation at Venice Film Festival
That’s why cinema, art, and every kind of expression are so important — to give those people a voice and a face.”
The film incorporates real audio recordings of Hind’s desperate calls to the Red Crescent rescue service as her family came under fire in Gaza City.
Hind was the sole survivor at first, but she was later found dead, along with two ambulance workers who tried to save her.
“Please come to me, please come. I’m scared,” she sobs repeatedly in the film, her voice audible over the sound of gunfire.
While The Voice of Hind Rajab dramatizes the perspective of Red Crescent workers trying to reach her, it is rooted in the true events that sparked global outrage.
The Israeli military has said only that the circumstances of Hind Rajab’s death are “still being reviewed.” It has never announced a formal investigation.
The production also drew A-list backing. Executive producers include Joaquin Phoenix — who attended the premiere — Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer, and Alfonso Cuarón.
Gaza war film 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' wins second prize at Venice
"The Voice of Hind Rajab", a gut-wrenching Gaza film that left audiences sobbing at its premiere, won the Silver Lion grand jury prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.
The movie, from French-Tunisian… pic.twitter.com/SZLkie15oG
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The film’s release coincided with grim news from Gaza: on the same day as its premiere, a senior Israeli military official said a new offensive around Gaza City could displace another one million Palestinians.
The war on Gaza has dominated the atmosphere in Venice, with thousands of protesters marching at the festival entrance on Saturday. An open letter signed by roughly 2,000 film professionals called on festival organizers to condemn the Israeli government.
From Gaza City, Hind’s mother, Wissam Hamada, told Agence France-Presse she hoped the film would push the world to action: “The whole world has left us to die, to go hungry, to live in fear, and to be forcibly displaced without doing anything.”
According to Gaza’s health ministry, over 64,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardment since October 7, 2023, figures the United Nations considers credible.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
This genocide, far from destroying Palestine, will ensure that Israel is wiped from the map, because it has become a pariah state that has sown the seeds of its own dismemberment.