Liffe after Liffe:
The Voice Of Hind Rajab (Sawt Hind Rajab)

Directed by: Kaouther Ben Hania
Tunisia, France, USA, ZDA 2025, 89'

Cankarjev dom Cinema The Voice Of Hind Rajab (Sawt Hind Rajab)

Screenplay: Kaouther Ben Hania
Cinematography: Juan Sarmiento G.
Music: Amine Bouhafa
Cast: Saja Kilani (Rana Hassan Faqih), Motaz Malhees (Omar A. Alqam), Clara Khoury (Nisreen Jeries Qawas), Amer Hlehel (Mahdi M. Aljamal)
Production: Mime Films&Tanit Films&JW Films&RaeFilm Studios
Distribucija: Demiurg
Festivals, awards (selection): Venice 2025 (Grand Jury Prize)

A docudrama recounting the final plea of a five-year-old Gaza girl from the perspective of the medical team that tried to organize her rescue.

29 January 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year-old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza's Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, pleading for rescue. The little girl describes the mangled, bloodied bodies of her family members in the car as "sleeping". While trying to keep her on the line, and convince her to keep hiding in the wreckage of her relatives' car, they do everything they can to coordinate a safe passage for an ambulance and its rescue team of paramedics to save the little girl. After a three-hour wait, rescuers are allowed, by the Israeli military, to dispatch an ambulance to the car where Rajab spoke from. A feverish race against time begins.

I heard an audio recording of Hind Rajab begging for help. /.../ After listening to it, I knew, without a doubt, that I had to drop everything else. I had to make this film. /.../ I cannot accept a world where a child calls for help and no one comes. That pain, that failure, belongs to all of us. This story is not just about Gaza. It speaks to a universal grief. And I believe that fiction (especially when it draws from verified, painful, real events) is cinema's most powerful tool. More powerful than the noise of breaking news or the forgetfulness of scrolling. Cinema can preserve a memory. Cinema can resist amnesia. May Hind Rajab's voice be heard.
Kaouther ben Hania

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