2025 Review of the BFI London Film Festival – The Voice of Hind Rajab

      The Voice of Hind Rajab, 2025.

      Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.

      Featuring Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Clara Khoury, and Amer Hlehel.

      SYNOPSIS:

      Volunteers from the Red Crescent receive an urgent call. A 6-year-old girl is trapped in a vehicle under gunfire from the IDF in Gaza, begging for help. While they attempt to keep her on the line, they do all they can to dispatch an ambulance to her location.

      Critiquing a film like The Voice of Hind Rajab presents a challenging task, yet it remains essential. Numerous stories have emerged from this era of death and destruction, and this is one of them — a painful account that illustrates the innocence at the core of the suffering we are witnessing. A child who did not understand why she was dying, similar to countless others on both sides of the conflict, emphasizes the importance of film as an art form that serves as a time capsule of trauma.

      The narrative revolves around the tragic death of a five-year-old Palestinian girl targeted by the IDF during the invasion of the Gaza Strip. Her desperate calls to the Red Crescent emergency center, while she hid in a car filled with the bodies of her family and covered in 335 bullet holes, became a major news story. Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania combines the haunting audio from that day with a dramatization of the efforts to get an ambulance to her side.

      Echoing Paul Greengrass’s approach to portraying tragedy, Voice employs a shooting style that creates an immediate connection to the events unfolding. A roaming camera captures what seems to be an ordinary day in the call center, with colleagues joking in between calls and managers clocking out after a long shift. This portrayal of a typical work environment filled with relatable individuals enhances the impending drama against which this story unfolds.

      When the emergency call arrives, one might expect the focus to shift to the scene, but Hania wisely maintains a single location, fully aware that the recordings alone convey the horror of Hind's predicament. She is correct; the voice messages are profoundly distressing, not solely due to the sporadic gunfire or graphic details, but because they punctuate the recognizable sounds of a frightened little girl.

      While her words alone are powerful, Voice painstakingly depicts the efforts made by the team to save her. The necessary permissions, delays caused by bureaucracy, and the frustrations faced by emergency workers trying to navigate towards the devastation underscore their helplessness. Each literal and metaphorical obstacle or unanswered call heightens the agony of Hind’s cries for assistance.

      The cast is small yet exceptional. Motaz Malhees and Saja Kilani deliver outstanding performances as Omar A. Alqam and Rana Hassan Faqih, respectively. As the first responders to Hind’s call, they carry much of the emotional weight outside of the real-life recordings, with both providing performances that resonate deeply with the gravity of the situation. Hania employs thoughtful but respectful techniques to emphasize the reality, such as occasionally blending the actors' voices with those of their real-life counterparts, and including a scene towards the end where a mobile phone's screen captures actual footage of the team gathered around a phone listening to Hind’s last moments.

      Kaouther Ben Hania’s film urges viewers not to turn away during a time when the world has grown indifferent to such events. Her work is a stark recreation of a singular story that reflects many others. The performances are impactful, the dramatization commendable, but it is the voice recordings of Hind and her final moments in this harsh world that will leave an indelible mark on all who hear them.

      Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ ★/ Movie ★ ★ ★ ★

      Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter