Tunisian film The Voice of Hind Rajab nominated for Golden Globe

• Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab earns Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language.
• The docudrama reconstructs the final hours of five-year-old Hind Rajab, killed in Gaza in January 2024.
• The film premiered at Venice Film Festival, winning the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize.
• Backed by major producers, it is also Tunisia’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania has earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Non-English Language for her latest work, The Voice of Hind Rajab, one of this awards season’s most discussed films.

The docudrama recounts the final hours of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed in Gaza in January 2024 after being trapped in a car with her relatives under 'Israeli' fire. The story unfolds almost entirely inside an emergency dispatch centre, following medics as they attempt, but fail, to reach her. The film blends actors with real audio recordings of Hind’s phone call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Ben Hania reflected on the discovery of the audio. "It was one of the most difficult things I’ve heard in my life," she told The National during the Venice Film Festival. She initially put aside another project, realizing the urgency of telling Hind’s story. The film was shot over three weeks in Tunisia last November, after Ben Hania sought permission from Hind’s mother to use the recordings.

“Hind’s mother told me something about the voice of her daughter: it should be heard, and not be forgotten,” Ben Hania said. She added, “The voice of this little girl can make people uncomfortable. I can totally understand it, and that’s why I’m doing this movie. I’m not doing this movie to make people comfortable because Gazans are not having a comfortable life. Hind’s mother … she’s mourning and she doesn’t have a comfortable life. So if people are thinking, ‘Ah, it’s not moral to do this’ … for me, I have the blessing of the mother. It’s important that Hind’s voice stays.”

The Voice of Hind Rajab premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September, where it received a lengthy standing ovation and won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, the festival’s second-highest honour, alongside several parallel awards. The film is also Tunisia’s official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Supported by producers and executive producers including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, and Alfonso Cuaron, Ben Hania continues to explore hybrid documentary and fiction filmmaking. Her previous film, Four Daughters, received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary in 2024.