Amer Hlehel, Clara Khoury, drama, film festivals, Kaouther Ben Hania, Motaz Malhees, movies, Nesbat Serhan, Palestine, reviews, Saja Kilani, The Voice of Hind Rajab, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival
Decemebr 17, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania
Arabic with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Palestine’s Gaza Strip, on January 29, 20204, the docudrama film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” (based on true events) features an all-Arba cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class.
Culture Clash: Volunteers at a Red Crescent emergency call center frantically try to save a 6-year-old girl trapped in a car during an outdoor military attack.
Culture Audience: “The Voice of Hind Rajab” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania and are interested in seeing realistic depictions of innocent people caught in the crossfire of war.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” is a heartbreaking docudrama about the devastation caused by war, as told through the voice of a 6-year-old girl trapped in a car after a military attack in Gaza in 2024. This movie effectively depicts the race against time to save her, from the perspectives of emergency call center employees. “The Voice of Hind Rajab” uses the real voice of the trapped girl, whose name was Hind Rajab, and uses transcripts from the recorded calls as the bases for the scripted parts of the movie.
Written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, “The Voice of Hind Rajab” had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, where it won several prizes: ARCA CinemaGiovani Award – Best Film of Venezia 81, CICT – UNESCO Enrico Fulchignoni Award
Croce Rossa Italiana Award, Edipo Re Award, Leoncino d’Oro Award, Sorriso Diverso Venezia Award for Best Foreign Film, and the UNIMED Award. The movie takes place in Palestine’s Gaza Strip and was actually filmed in Tunisia. “The Voice of Hind Rajab” is Tunisia’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film for the 2026 Academy Awards.
The scripted majority “The Voice of Hind Rajab” takes place on January 29, 2024. The movie, which clocks in at 89 minutes, aims to present the story as if it were happening in real time. The movie’s epilogue includes some real-life news footage of what happened after this day. The real names of the emergency responders are used in the movie.
A caption in the beginning of the film explains that on this day, residents of Gaza’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood have been ordered to evacuate by Israeli military. The movie is based on emergency phone calls made that day. At the Red Crescent emergency call center, which is staffed mostly by volunteers Palestine Red Crescent Society, a phone call comes in to Omar A. Alqam (played by Motaz Malhees), who hears a woman on the other line screaming, “They’re shooting at us!”
The phone then goes silent, and no one is responding on the other line. Omar knows the woman has most likely died. He is deeply affected because he knows he has probably been an earwitness to murder.
Another frantic call for help comes into the call center. This time, it’s a man saying his 6-yeaer-old niece Hind Rajab Hamada, who has the nickname Hanood, is trapped in a car outside while there is still active gunfire and bombings. She and other family members had been trying to escape in the car, which got caught in the battle zone and can no longer move. Omar doesn’t want to take this call, but his co-worker Rana Hassan Faqih (played by Saja Kilani) persuades him to take the call. “You were trained for this,” Rana tells Omar.
Omar hears from the uncle that Hind was in the car with a female cousin named Layan, but Layan was able to escape, and Hind is the only known family member who is alive. And then, the phone calls from Hind begin. She describes being frightened and that everyone in the car with her is covered in blood and not moving. Hind seems to know that these family members are dead. She repeatedly pleads for someone to come get her.
Having been unable to rescue someone earlier, Omar is now determined to save this girl, even if it means that he won’t follow protocol. Omar has clashes with a co-worker named Mahdi M. Aljamal (played by Amer Hlehel), who insists that Omar not interfere in Mahdi’s job of being the contact liaison for emergency rescuers. Omar grows impatient and tries to contact emergency rescuers himself.
Rana and another female co-worker named Nisreen Jeries Qawas (played by Clara Khoury) also get involved in talking to Hind on the phone. Rana is the calmer of these two women, and she shows more sympathy for Omar when he gets frustrated or has arguments with Mahdi. Another co-worker named Leila (played by Nesbat Serhan) helps as much as she can.
The movie focuses on Omar, Rana, Mahdi and Nisreen as the main people who are in communication with Hind and with other people who are involved in trying to rescue Hind. The biggest challenge is to find out exactly where Hind is located when she doesn’t know exactly where she is. Based on the gunshots and explosions heard in the background, she’s in an active war zone and could be killed at any moment by bullets or a bomb.
Help is not easy to come by in this emergency. The American Red Cross doesn’t want to get involved when asked by the Red Crescent call center to give assistance. Two emergency rescuers named Youssef Zaino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun end up being the ones to drive to where they think Hind is located. All of the cast members give convincing performances.
Ben Hania’s documentary-styled direction of “The Voice of Hind Rajab” fully immerses viewers into the panic, fear, hope, tension and feelings of helplessness that people have on both ends of the phone calls that are depicted and heard in this harrowing movie. Through it all, the voice of Hind will haunt everyone who hears her, as she desperately wants to live and be reunited with her family. It’s a voice that transcends politics and speaks to basic human decency and compassion when basic human decency and compassion are hard to find during atrocious acts of war.
Willa released “The Voice of Hind Rajab” in select U.S. cinemas on December 17, 2025. The movie was released in Tunisia on September 10, 2025.