Gaza war docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab nominated for Academy Award

An Academy Award has been awarded to a haunting docudrama about Israel’s killing of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, 5, during its genocidal conflict in Gaza.

French-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s film The Voice of Hind Rajab was nominated for the Oscars for Best International Feature on Thursday.

The movie combines dramatic re-enactments with recordings of actual emergency calls to tell the true story of Hind, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City in 2024.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society’s rescuers tried to comfort her as she lay stranded in a bullet-ridden car with the bodies of her aunt, uncle, and three cousins, all of whom had been killed by Israeli fire, using harrowing audio from Hind Rajab’s call to the hospital.

The two ambulance drivers who attempted to save the girl also died at the scene.

Following her death, a recording of the phone call was widely shared on social media, sparking a new outcry from around the world over Israel’s assaults on civilians.

Since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 71 Palestinians have been killed and 171 are wounded in Israeli attacks, many of which are children.

More than 100 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza, according to UNICEF, the organization’s child protection agency, even since the ceasefire’s start in October of last year.

“Echo her voice.”

According to The Associated Press news agency, filmmaker Ben Hania claimed her goal with the movie was to spread Hind Rajab’s voice around the world.

Because this young girl’s voice wasn’t heard when it was needed, she said, “my main obsession or idea was to make her voice echo all over the world” when I started making this movie.

The fact that we are nominated today shines a spotlight on Hind Rajab’s voice.

She expressed gratitude to the academy members who had supported her film for acknowledging the fact that “filmmaking is not always an escape.”

It can be confrontational, she says. It might be something that we shouldn’t ignore, such as the truth or the state of the affairs.

No evidence of a firefighting exchange

The Rajab family’s death was the result of an encounter between Israeli troops and armed Palestinian fighters, according to the Israeli government at the time.

However, a subsequent investigation by the London-based research firm Forensic Architecture found no evidence of any kind of fire exchange and only the presence of several Israeli Merkava tanks close to the Rajab family’s car.

Colonel Beni Aharon of Israel’s 401 Armoured Brigade was the overall lead officer in the tanks that were present at the time of the family’s death.

The Hind Rajab Foundation, which uses social media footage that Israeli soldiers captured while conducting operations in Gaza as evidence for war crimes prosecutions, has already filed a criminal complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

third-time nominee

Ben Hania’s or her movie has received another industry award for the Oscar nomination.

The director’s 2020 movie, The Man Who Sold His Skin, and her 2023 documentary, Four Daughters, both received Academy Award nominations twice.

The Voice of Hind Rajab received a 23-minute standing ovation at its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September.