THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB

Special Features: Special Presentation | 2026 Oscar® Selection, Tunisia

[صوت هند رجب]
On January 29, 2024, five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab and six members of her family attempted to flee to safety during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military shelled and shot at the fleeing vehicle, killing Hind’s family and trapping the young girl in the wreckage of the car. Hind was able to place a call to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society desperately begging for help, but the aid workers dispatched to her rescue were also murdered by the Israeli forces — as, ultimately, was Hind herself. Instead of directly depicting this horrific atrocity, celebrated Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (FOUR DAUGHTERS, AFI FEST 2023) centers the drama of her latest film within the offices of the Palestinian Red Crescent, chronicling the efforts of the aid workers tasked with maintaining an open phone line to Hind while navigating a byzantine bureaucracy in order to get her the help she needs. In a bold and inspired move, Ben Hania utilizes the real audio of Hind’s phone calls in the film, a choice that blurs the line between fiction and documentary, yet never feels exploitative; in fact, Ben Hania made the film with the support of Hind’s mother and the valiant real-life workers who coordinated the rescue effort. Tunisia’s Oscar® entry for Best International Feature Film, THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB is undoubtedly a heartbreaking watch, but it is also an urgent examination of the inefficient and complex systems within which humanitarian aid organizations work — and a memorial to a life taken too soon by a brutal genocide. –Javier Chavez

Grand Jury Prize, Venice International Film Festival. DIR/SCR Kaouther Ben Hania; PROD Nadim Cheikhrouha, Odessa Rae, James Wilson. Tunisia/France, 2025, color, 89 min. In Arabic with English subtitles. NOT RATED

Run Time: 89 Minutes

Opening Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Genre: Drama

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