The crew behind the Gaza war drama documentary “The Voice of Hind Rajab” (2025), directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, celebrated the film’s screening on Wednesday at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival – the only Arab film participating in the festival’s official competition.
A press conference was held on Wednesday, attended by the film’s creators: director Kaouther Ben Hania, Clara Khoury, Amer Hlehel, Saja Kalani, and Moataz Melis, in addition to stars Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix, who co-produced the film.
The film revolves around the true story of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces. Her body was found 12 days after she and her family left the western Gaza Strip following Israel’s decision to evacuate the area, hoping to seek refuge from the bombing.
The film’s director, Kaouther Ben Hania, told Al-Masry Al-Youm: “I listened to an audio recording of Hind Rajab pleading for help, which had spread online. I felt intense pain and sadness at the time. I contacted the Red Crescent and asked them to listen to the entire audio recording, which was approximately 70 minutes long. I decided then to produce a work that chronicles this incident.”
“I then spoke with Hind’s mother and the people who tried to help her. I then wrote a story about their conversation, using Hind’s actual voice recording. Cinema’s most powerful tool is when a work is inspired by painful real events. We finished the entire project in 12 months.”
The Guardian described “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which tells the story of a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year, as “very moving,” while critics considered it the strongest and most important film at this year’s festival.
The Hollywood Reporter said: “The film made for an emotional day at the Casino Palace, where director Kaouther Ben Hania received a long standing ovation during the afternoon press conference when she took the stage for the panel discussion.”
Deadline added: “Gaza has cast a heavy shadow over the Venice Film Festival this year, from awkward questions to jury members about the conflict to a protest march that was ultimately prevented from reaching the festival’s ground zero.”
It continued: “The powerful documentary ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ could be the spark that supporters of the Palestinian cause have been waiting for. It’s an urgent, investigative drama that uses cinematic tools—close-ups, handheld shots, and a camera that moves with the tension of a father in the delivery room—to get its message across clearly.”
As the official La Biennale di Venezia website states: “This story is not just about Gaza. It expresses a shared global grief. We believe that imagination, especially when based on painful and documented real events, is cinema’s most powerful tool; more powerful than the noise of breaking news and the forgetfulness of scrolling. Cinema preserves memory. Cinema resists forgetting.”
The Venice Film Festival has screened five other films in addition to “The Voice of Hind Rajab.”
These include “Remake,” (2025) “Kabul Between Prayers” (2025), “In the Hand of Dante” (2025) and “Notes of a True Criminal,” (2025) which are competing out of competition, as well as “Duse,” (2025) which is competing in the official competition.
The 82nd Venice International Film Festival will be held from August 27 to September 6 on the Lido Island in Venice, Italy.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
