The Voice of Hind Rijab

The Voice of Hind Rajab is one of those films that grabs you from the first frame and demands you pay attention to it. This it does not through visceral action, but rather via the communication of emotions. This is a film that earns each and every moment. Part docudrama and part polemic on the horrors of war and the fatal flaws within bureaucracy, the story contained within is one that may haunt a viewer for a long time. Telling the real story of a January 2024 attack in Gaza, which left a family, except one, dead in their car, this is the story of the rescue workers and that survivor, the title character. She was five years old.

The film is presented as a close approximation to real time, though several hours get collapsed into the ninety-minute run time. Actors portray the rescuers, though there are some exceptions which are worth noting. The film is centered around a call that comes in from a panicked man, who claims his brother’s family has been attacked in their car and that there are young girls alive in the vehicle. Getting ahold of the girls, the anguished workers listen as one of them dies, before hearing from the youngest. Her name was Hamood, or Hind.

The calls, in the film, are authentic. Indeed, not only are the voices of Hind, her cousin and eventually, her mother, the real calls, the director occasionally allows the voices of the real rescue operators to be heard, over the visuals of the actors playing them. The effect is potent, a profound mix of observation and engagement, tinged with despair. This is vital to the message and mood the film achieves.

The director of the film, Kaouther Ben Hania, expertly keeps her camera active, even in sequences that are otherwise static. She makes people sitting at screens or standing in doorways seem full of energy, because she allows her actors to demonstrate the emotional truth of each moment. The film could be likened to a work by Kathryn Bigelow or Paul Greengrass, except more concerned with the emotional connections between characters and asking questions of the audience.

The actors in the film do a tremendous job keeping the audience engaged to the point that you believe these “are” the real people.  The way the lines blur between film and archive helps to sell the immediacy and intensity of the events, as well. Ben Hania also allows herself several other clever, but not distracting, visual flairs in order to sell the story. To say more would be to spoil the very special way it might affect a viewer.

Wisely, she keeps a majority of the film focused on the call center. We never see Hind during the calls, except in photographs. There is real footage, but again, saying more would spoil the emotional impact this work has. It is a film where the how is as important as the what, because the method of delivery is vital to the way in which one receives and understands the story. This might seem basic, but in Ben Hania’s hands, the experience is richly, deeply devastating.

In a lesser film, there would have been far more telling, rather than showing, and everything would have been staged like an action thriller. Here, there is no room for such hysterics. Instead, the film focuses on the waves of emotion the course through the various members of the rescue team, and their desire to save the child while trying to calm the concerned family members. Despite the well-known outcome of the story, the fact the tension is maintained, and a sense of uncertainty exists, is testament to the skill with which this film was fashioned. A truly devastating film that must be seen to be understood. One of the best of the year. Do not miss this gripping docudrama.

GRADE A –

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB OPENS IN LIMITED RELEASE on DECEMBER 17th, 2025