The Mostra shaken by Gaza: the shock film The Voice of Hind Rajab
Assassinated by the Israeli army in January 2024, Hind Rajab, 6, remained locked up for hours in a car surrounded by his family’s bodies, imploring the rescue on the phone that will never happen. The paramedics of the Red Crescent, who came to save it, were also executed by Israeli forces. His martyrdom, which has become a symbol of genocide in Gaza, resonates today on the screens of the Venice Mostra with the film Shock The Voice of Hind Rajab.
The 82nd Venice Mostra was shaken by The Voice of Hind Rajabthe film by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania who gives life to the cry of a girl killed in Gaza in January 2024. Supported by Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Brad Pitt, the feature film traces the last moments of the little Hind, 6, whose calls for help, remained unanswered, had turned the world.
The projection was a historic moment: more than 23 minutes of standing ovation, punctuated by tears, songs of “free, free Palestine” and Palestinian flags brandished in the room. Venice had never vibrated with such political and emotional intensity. The film, centered on the recordings of the Palestinian Red Red Red, shows how the rescuers tried for hours to reassure Hind when she was trapped in the car where her aunt, uncle and cousins had just been killed by Israeli fire.
At a press conference, the Palestinian actress Saja Kilani delivered a poignant statement: “Her voice is that of thousands of children killed in the past two years. The voice of all those who should have lived and dream, but to whom we torn everything in a snap of the fingers. “She concluded with a solemn call:” Enough. Not a day, not tomorrow, now. »»
Very moved, Kaouther Ben Hania explained her approach: “When I heard Hind Rajab’s voice for the first time, there was something more than his voice. It was the voice of Gaza who called for help, and no one could enter. After his time noticed in Venice, where he saw the golden lion, The Voice of Hind Rajab Prepares to travel from festival to festival-from Toronto to London, via Saint-Sébastien and Busan-before officially representing Tunisia to the Oscars.
By giving a face and a voice to Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben Hania recalls the essential: behind the dreadful figures, they are children who are systematically destroyed. His film arrives in a moment when the word “genocide” is no longer just a militant accusation, but an observation taken up by many lawyers, institutions and personalities. The voice of Hind, resuscitated on the screen, testifies to the horror of a policy of extermination which aims to erase a people of their land. By resonating in Venice, she breaks the wall of silence and places cinema in the face of her responsibility: that of saying the inexpressible and to name the crime.
