The Voice of Hind Rajab, 2025.
Written and Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.
Starring Motaz Malhees, Saja Kilani, Amer Hlehel, Clara Khoury, and Nesbat Serhan.
SYNOPSIS:
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A 6-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.
Before getting into some conflicted thoughts on writer/director Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, it must be acknowledged that this is a vital, necessary, and shattering film.
However, there is some pause regarding the methods of how this story is told, which is essentially a blending of documentary and dramatization that sometimes leans into over-dramatization, in turn raising questions of exploitation and frustrations that, despite how important this story is and how much it deserves to be spread further into the mainstream, resembles several other movies unfolding in a call center as a thriller.
The idea that a will they/won’t they save a six-year-old girl plot while using actual audio recordings of the distressed and terrified Hind Rajab Hamada’s voice while trapped in a bullet-ridden vehicle next to dead family members, and placing that inside a tried-and-true structure of something along the lines of The Guilty exists somewhere at the intersection of daring, heart-drilling filmmaking intended to shine a light on Israel’s atrocities currently being committed against Palestinians and leaving a sour taste in one’s mouth.
One alternative would be casting someone to play Hind Rajab, which would be downright distasteful. Another thought is simply “why isn’t this a straight documentary?” Perhaps it’s because no matter how vital those are (take last year’s devastating, important, and incredible documentary No Other Land as an example), they can’t generate distribution, let alone an audience that needs to see it and become more aware of these current events. The cowardice of the majority of Hollywood choosing to stay on the wrong side of history isn’t exactly helping, either. With A-list talent such as Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix signing on as executive producers here, there may be a little more hope for this project.
Even then, one keeps coming back to the template of the film, which involves actors playing the real Red Crescent volunteers who had to navigate through in-house verbal arguing over whether or not enough is being done to save Hind Rajab and stickler rules regarding putting together a rescue route for the ambulance in Gaza. There is no denying the harrowing intensity of the proceedings, bolstered by some emotionally draining performances. With a mixture of professional and nonprofessional actors, the casting crew has worked tirelessly to ensure that their performances are seamlessly integrated into the interactions with the real audio of Hind Rajab. Sometimes, the audio plays using the real Red Crescent volunteers, and to the credit of the ensemble, it’s impossible to tell the difference.
The story being told needs to be heard and boosted as high as possible. As a film, that doesn’t mean it’s without flaws, circular repetition, familiarity, and suspicions that some of the arguments and heated back-and-forths have been dialed up a notch too far. Maybe that also doesn’t matter, considering The Voice of Hind Rajab, not to sound cliché, is so much more than a movie. It’s ugliness that needs to be consumed, a wake-up call, a call to action, a plea for peace, and a damning indictment that none of this should have ever happened. Anyone with a soul will be wrecked from watching this. Whether or not some of that is manipulative or in slightly questionable taste will make for a fascinating debate. Despite my own reservations, maybe that’s not a dispute that needs to be had right now. The focus should be on freeing Palestine, and hopefully, bold art like this makes a difference in accomplishing that.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
