The Voice of Hind Rajab
The Voice of Hind Rajab is a 2025 docudrama film written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. It follows the Red Crescent response during the killing of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl, by the Israel Defense Forces during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. It stars Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Amer Hlehel, and Clara Khoury. The film is a co-production between Tunisia and France.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2025, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and six other parallel prizes. It was theatrically released in Tunisia on 10 September, and was released in France on 26 November by The Party Film Sales.
At the 98th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best International Feature Film as the Tunisian entry. At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, it was also nominated for Best Non-English Language Film.
Synopsis
The film's official synopsis is as follows:Cast
- Saja Kilani as Rana Hassan Faqih
- Motaz Malhees as Omar A. Alqam
- Amer Hlehel as Mahdi M. Aljamal
- Clara Khoury as Nisreen Jeries Qawas
Production
Development
In May 2025, it was announced Kaouther Ben Hania had directed an untitled film about the killing of Hind Rajab, with principal photography concluding in Tunisia. Nadim Cheikhrouha, Odessa Rae and James Wilson serve as producers. Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Jonathan Glazer, Alfonso Cuarón, Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Jon Kilik, Jemima Khan, Frank Giustra, Guillaume Rambourg, Elizabeth Woodward, Sarah Rambourg, and Sabine Getty are among the executive producers.The film is a co-production between Tunisia and France.
Filming
Filming took place in Tunisia over three weeks in November 2024.The Voice of Hind Rajab was one of three films about Hind Rajab that were shot around the same time in 2024 and released in 2025. The Dutch short film Close Your Eyes Hind was shot in December 2024 and released in June 2025, and the Jordanian short film Hind Under Siege was shot in December 2024 and released in October 2025.
Release
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2025, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion. It also screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentations section on 7 September 2025. Prior to the film's premiere, Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonathan Glazer, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner onboarded as executive producers. It also received a screening in the Perlak section of the 73rd San Sebastián International Film Festival, earning a 9.52/10 score from the moviegoers voting for the City of Donostia / San Sebastián Audience Award, the highest score ever achieved at the festival.The film is one of three films on Palestinian history to be submitted to the 98th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film – the others being All That's Left of You and Palestine 36. The lack of distribution by American studios for the Palestinian films submitted for the 98th Academy Awards generated controversy online and among executive producers, who reportedly were "passing out of fear". Several months earlier, the Palestine documentary No Other Land went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary without the involvement of any American distributors; the producers ended up self-distributing the film in a small number of screens. In October 2025, Willa acquired United States distribution rights to the film, and set it for a December 16, 2025, release. It was released in Tunisian cinemas on September 10, 2025.
The film opened the first edition of the Gaza International Festival for Women's Cinema in Deir al-Balah on 26 October 2025, held during the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.
Reception
Critical response
The film received a 23-minute, 50-second standing ovation at its Venice premiere, beating the previous record for longest recorded applause at a film festival; Pan's Labyrinth had received a 22-minute standing ovation at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said of the film, "I'm always a little conflicted when a tragedy involving a child is used in filmmaking, but I also believe that true action sometimes requires being confronted with visions of true horror instead of just reading or hearing about them. The Voice of Hind Rajab is the confrontation its victim deserves." Slate's Sam Adams wrote, "Ben Hania periodically reminds the audience just how faithful the re-creation they're watching is. She fills the screen with the audio waveform of Rajab's voice, the digital file name stamped in the corner, and occasionally allows the voices of the real dispatchers the actors are playing to overlap with their dialogue. The movie keeps reminding us how close we are to what actually happened, climaxing with a shot that blends real video and the actors' reenactment. But the heart of the conflict, like Rajab herself, is impossible to reach." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 4/5 stars, writing, "there is a reckless, ruthless kind of provocative brilliance in what Ben Hania is doing. Is it in bad taste? Problematic? Well, in a world where directors busy themselves and us with made-up stories about made-up people, Ben Hania is at least grabbing one of the most relevant issues of our time with both hands and finding a way to thrust it under our noses."