A devastatingly visceral film.
It’s been some time —if ever— since I’ve sat in a film, that was not a superhero movie with an anticipated teaser towards the end that gave a nod to an upcoming film, where no one got up until the end credits stopped rolling and the lights went on.
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a movie that has evoked such heartache.
At face value, The Voice of Hind Rajab is a dramatization of the call recorded of Hind seeking help when trapped in the car in Gaza, surrounded by Israeli forces.
More complexly, this film so artfully and heart-wrenchingly stages intense feelings of grief, frustration with bureaucracy and also the difficulty of trying to make an impossible decision, keeping first responders safe or throwing every possible resource towards saving a five-year-old girl who is alone and in danger at the hands of a colonizing force. This movie plainly shows the intense emotions of those in a call center trying to get help to those stuck in a warzone and the weight of the aftermath of not being able to deliver aid. The Voice of Hind Rajab so delicately shows the viewer that children, even as young as six, are so tragically aware of the most horrific situations with a devastating degree of clarity, but they are still children, struggling to understand why it is that someone cannot come get them when they are stuck and they are asking so earnestly.
The Voice of Hind Rajab is the embodiment of a nightmare. The suffering of one entirely innocent. One of thousands of human beings, of Palestinians.
This film is raw and real, and I implore you to watch it.
Directed and written by : Kaouther Ben Hania
Caia Rose 