VENICE, Italy: In January 2024, a 6-year-old girl trapped inside a bullet-riddled car in Gaza City begged for someone to rescue her. Contact was lost with the first ambulance. Hind Rajab, five family members and two medics were found dead 12 days later.
The impact of the story, and the audio of Hind’s voice from that call, has been vast, inspiring songs, protest movements and now a film from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which debuts Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival, is a shattering document of the Israel-Hamas war, set entirely inside the dispatch center of the Palestine Red Crescent Society rescue service. The film uses the real audio of Hind’s call, while actors portray the first responders.
“When you hear her voice you feel powerless,” Ben Hania told The Associated Press recently.
Hind’s cousin, Layan, who was in the car, had told family members that Israeli forces were firing on them before she was killed. The Red Crescent said Israeli troops fired on its ambulance. Asked for comment, the military said the incident is “still being reviewed,” without elaborating.
Listening to the audio, which was shared widely on social media in the 12 days after the Red Crescent lost contact with its medics and Hind, Ben Hania said she felt like she needed to do something, to help the innocent voice she was hearing.
“I felt like she was asking me to rescue her,” Ben Hania said. “It’s not rational what I’m saying, because I knew the tragedy already happened. I asked of myself, ‘What I can do,’ and I only know one thing: how to tell stories.”
