The Voice of Hind Rajab (2026)

There's a lot been made of Kaouther Ben Hania's new film, which proved a huge talking point at the Venice Film Festival when it premiered there last year. It tells the horrific ordeal of the titular six year old girl, who was killed by the Israel Defence Forces in Gaza back in 2024, after they opened fire on the car that her and six family members were travelling in. Rajab survived the initial attack, and stayed on the phone for many hours with the Palestine Red Crescent Society begging for help; aid that we quickly realise, is breathtakingly slow in being greenlit. What makes the film stand out- aside from the fact that it's an astonishingly bold and brilliant piece of film making- is that Ben Hania uses the actually audio recording from Rajab's call, while fictionally reconstructing the rescue effort around it. The film is almost entirely set within the confines of the Red Crescent Headquarters, with Motaz Malhees playing Omar, the man who initially takes the call, and Saja Kilani his supervisor Rana- who is about to leave for the day when the call comes in. Both of them are playing real people, along with Amer Hlehel's Mahdi, the coordinator who repeatedly tries to calm Omar as he's forced to wait hours for any sort of progress with the rescue operation. There are those who have accused the film of being exploitative in using the real audio recording to tell the story, but there's no doubting whatsoever the effectiveness of such a ploy. Whatever your opinion on the decision, it makes the film. The Voice of Hind Rajab would be a difficult enough watch as it is, but to know the heart wrenching voice on the phone is real, adds a whole other layer of horror, and it's an extremely hard watch- yet undeniably gripping. The performances are excellent, and for many it will prove eye opening just to see how the rescue effort is hindered by bureaucratic procedure. Not only that, the question Omar asks his superior "How can you coordinate with the army that killed them?" sums up in a nutshell the hopeless absurdity of the situation. Madhi, as his boss, must follow procedure; that includes several people verifying every single part of the rescue, culminating in the army that are culpable of the initial attack making the final call in allowing the ambulance through the streets without shooting at it. This is the reality of the situation, and it's perhaps is the only thing that Ben Hania exploits- brilliantly- in a film that is deeply disturbing yet relentless in the urgency of its execution. 8.2/10