The Voice of Hind Rajab gets record 23-minute ovation at Venice premiere

The Voice of Hind Rajab gets record 23-minute ovation at Venice premiere

The Voice of Hind Rajab, a true-life drama about a six-year-old Gaza girl who was brutally killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City last year, attracted a standing ovation for more than 23 minutes at its premiere at the famed Venice Film Festival, where tears and chants of “Free, Free Palestine” are sung and Palestinian flags are waving.

The emotional drama focuses on recordings made by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which tried for hours to comfort Rajab as she lay stranded in a car where her aunt, uncle, and three cousins were shot dead by Israeli fire at Wednesday’s premiere.

Rajab is reportedly sobbing and telling the Red Crescent Society, “Please come to me, please come, please come,” in the original recordings taken from the attack on January 29, 2024. I’m afraid,” the background bullets were fired.

The Israeli military allowed rescuers to dispatch an ambulance to the car Rajab was speaking from after three hours of waiting. However, shortly after the ambulance arrived, the girl’s communication was halted.

Days later, her family and her body were discovered alongside Rajab. The two killed ambulance workers who tried to save her were also found in their destroyed car.

Prior to the screening, Kaouther Ben Hania, the director of the docu-drama, informed reporters that the death toll from the media was attributed to “collateral damage.”

According to Ben Hania, “I think this is so dehumanizing, and that’s why it’s very important to give those people a voice and a face.”

Wissam Hamada, Rajab’s mother, stated to the AFP news agency that she hoped the movie would put an end to the conflict.

Hamada, who lives in Gaza City with her five-year-old son, told AFP by phone: “The entire world has left us to die, to go hungry, to live in fear, to be forcefully displaced without doing anything.”

In collaboration with Forensic Architecture and Earshot, a nonprofit investigative organization, Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines conducted an investigation into the attack in June 2024, and it revealed that an Israeli tank was only 13 to 23 meters (42 to 75 feet) away when it opened fire on Rajab’s car.

Additionally, a UN report from July 2024 revealed that Rajab’s car was “shot at very close range using a type of weapon that can only be attributed to the Israeli forces,” citing forensic analysis.

The Israeli military has previously stated that its troops were not within range of the car Rajab was driving, but earlier this week it received a request to speak with the military about the shooting. The military then declined to comment further.

The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film that was screened on the red carpet of Venice Lido on September 3, 2025, features US actors Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Kaouther Ben Hania, Motaz Malhees, and Clara Khoury.

Source: Aljazeera

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