Venice Film Festival premieres movie of Hind Rajab's story

A new film about a five-year-old girl killed in Gaza by Israeli Occupation Forces is drawing attention at the Venice Film Festival, as its director seeks to humanize the victims of the assault.

Franco-Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania told journalists Wednesday that her aim with The Voice of Hind Rajab is to provide “a voice and a face” to those often reduced to statistics in global media coverage.

“We've seen that the narrative all around the world is that those dying in Gaza are collateral damage, in the media, and I think this is so dehumanising,” Ben Hania said ahead of the film’s world premiere. “And that's why cinema, art, and every kind of expression is very important to give those people a voice and a face.”

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The film, one of 21 in contention for the festival’s Golden Lion award, recounts the tragic story of Hind Rajab, a young girl who survived after Israeli forces killed her family in January 2024 while they were evacuating Gaza. Using the actual audio from Hind’s phone calls with the Red Crescent, the film captures her desperate pleas for help.

“This movie was very important for me because when I heard the first time the voice of Hind Rajab, there was something more than her voice,” Ben Hania said. “It was the very voice of Gaza asking for help and nobody could enter. It was like a kind of strong desire and the feeling of anger and helplessness that gave birth to this movie.”

Gaza has remained a prominent subject at the prestigious festival, especially after filmmakers and activists urged organizers to speak more forcefully against the ongoing conflict.

Ben Hania, who became the first Tunisian filmmaker to represent her country at the Academy Awards in 2021, said the film is her attempt to confront the human cost of war and give victims a lasting presence through art.