Harrowing docu-drama gives ‘voice’ to Gaza victims

A GUT-WRENCHING film about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year gives a “voice” to Palestinian victims of the war, its director said.

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The Voice of Hind Rajab premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week. It shook audiences and left some critics in tears over the dramatic portrayal of real events from January 2024.

“We see that the narrative all around the world is that those dying in Gaza are collateral damage, in the media,” Franco-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania told reporters.

“And I think this is so dehumanising, and that’s why cinema, art and every kind of expression is important to give those people a voice and face.”

“I’m very happy, and I never in my life thought that could be possible,” Ben Hania said of her A-list Hollywood backers, whom she said had joined her after the film’s editing was completed.

Hind Rajab Hamada was fleeing an Israeli offensive in Gaza City with six relatives in January 2024 when their car came under fire.

Left as the sole survivor in the badly damaged vehicle, her desperate pleas for help by phone - recorded by the Red Crescent rescue service and later released — caused brief international outrage.