The anguished final pleas of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car under Israeli fire are retold in The Voice of Hind Rajab, a searing new film that received a rapturous premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.
“Hind’s story carries the weight of an entire people,” one of the actors, Saja Kilani, told reporters in a statement she read out on behalf of the whole cast and crew ahead of the screening.
The true-life drama focuses on telephone operators from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society who tried for hours to reassure the trapped Hind Rajab as she begged to be rescued from the car, where her aunt, uncle, and three cousins already lay dead. The incident took place some three months after the Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023, following Israel’s invasion of Gaza to rescue the hostages held by the terrorists and to end Hamas’s rule of the Strip.
“I’m so scared, please come,” the little girl says, with the original recordings of her increasingly desperate calls to the dispatchers used to powerful effect throughout the film.
“The real question is, how have we let a child beg for life? No one can live in peace while even one child is forced to plead for survival,” Kilani said. “Let Hind Rajab’s voice echo around the world.”
After a three-hour wait, Red Crescent finally got the green light from Israel to dispatch an ambulance to save Hind. But contact with the girl and the rescuers themselves was cut just after the ambulance arrived at the scene.
Days later, the girl’s body was found along with those of her relatives in the car. The remains of the two dead ambulance workers were also recovered from their bombed-out vehicle.
The IDF initially said its troops had not been within firing range of the car. Asked about the killings this week, the IDF said the incident, which happened on January 29, 2024, was still under review and declined further comment.
Film receives standing ovation
The film received a thunderous, 24-minute standing ovation at its premiere, by far the longest of this festival to date, making it the clear crowd favorite to win the prestigious Golden Lion award, which will be awarded on Saturday.
“Free, free Palestine,” people in the audience chanted.
The movie has also attracted some top Hollywood names as executive producers, giving it added industry heft, including actors Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, who were both in Venice on Wednesday to support the production, as well as Brad Pitt.
Meanwhile, US director Julian Schnabel on Wednesday criticized calls for two of the stars of his latest film, Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler, not to show up at the festival over their support for Israel.
Last month, a collective of hundreds of film industry figures, Venice4Palestine, urged the festival to take a robust stand over the war in Gaza.
The group subsequently called for Israeli actor Gadot and Britain’s Butler, who once took part in a fundraiser for the IDF, to be barred from the 11-day event.
Both actors appear in Schnabel’s star-studded movie In the Hand of Dante, which is being premiered at Venice on Wednesday. Neither actor is set to appear on the red carpet – –although Gadot, for one, had never been expected to attend according to pre-festival planning notes.
Asked about the push to bar actors for their political beliefs, Schnabel said: “I think there’s no reason to boycott artists. I selected those actors for their merits as actors, and they did an extraordinary job in the film, and that’s about it.”
Festival director Alberto Barbera told Reuters last week that Venice welcomed open debate, but dismissed calls for anyone to be excluded from the festival.