She wanted to make sure 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' was heard by the world

Director Kaouther Ben Hania explains the urgency she felt to tell the harrowing tale of a little girl caught up in the war in Gaza. 'Everything else seemed trivial.'

- Story by Hugh Hart

SIXTEEN WEEKS AFTER Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people in the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli military's response landed with horrific force on a little girl trapped in a car with six dead relatives in Gaza City.

"Come get me, please," 6-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded over the phone, in Arabic, to volunteers at the Palestine Red Crescent Emergency Call Center in Ramallah, 56 miles away in the West Bank.

Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania remembers being in L.A. promoting one of her movies when she first heard an audio clip of Hind's voice circulating online. "It's something you can't unhear," Ben Hania said, speaking from New York City. "I felt helpless when I heard this little girl. For me, to not feel helpless, I felt I should do this movie. Everything else seemed trivial."

To make "The Voice of Hind Rajab," winner of the Venice Film Festival's grand jury award and now Oscar-nominated for international feature, the writer-director set aside her next project. "It was a period piece about the beauty of art, and this just wasn't the time," she explained. Instead, Ben Hania, who's earned previous Academy Award nominations for "The Man Who Sold His Skin" and "Four Daughters," secured permission from Hind's mother, Wesam, to tell her daughter's story.