ReviewThe Voice of Hind Rajab movie review: harrowing Gaza docudrama is breathless, vital cinema
Kaouther Ben Hania’s gripping docudrama about a young girl trapped in a car uses real voice recordings to help expose the brutal cost of war
4/5 stars
Unfolding in near real-time, Kaouther Ben Hania’s riveting docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab recreates the desperate efforts of Red Crescent workers to rescue a young Palestinian girl trapped in a car in the Gaza Strip after her family is attacked by the Israel Defence Forces.
Seamlessly blending actual voice recordings with dramatic reconstructions, the film is a harrowing and politically potent thriller about the true price of war.
On January 29, 2024, volunteers at a Red Crescent emergency call centre in Ramallah receive a desperate phone call. Five-year-old Hind Rajab, known as Hanood, is trapped in a car with six murdered family members after the vehicle was fired upon by Israeli forces.
Phone operators Omar (Motaz Malhees) and Rana (Saja Kilani) are not only faced with keeping the young child calm but also with cutting through mountains of red tape involving authorities from both sides of the conflict so that they can send a rescue party into the war-torn neighbourhood.