The Voice of Hind Rajab review: A haunting reminder of an ongoing tragedy

The film and Hind’s voice will definitely haunt you for a long time

“A Happy Childhood,” 5-year-old Hind Rajab replies when a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) worker asks the name of her school. 

Director Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab will touch you in multiple ways, but it is the piercing irony of this particular scene that felt like the film’s most resonant and haunting truth. The truth that a child studying in “butterfly class” is trapped in the machinery of war is the most uncomfortable to face, and perhaps that is why it is more important to face it.

Based on the real incident that took place on January 29, 2024, in the ravaged Gaza city of Palestine, the film incorporates Hind’s real-life audio recordings along with dramatised scenes to tell the story of a kindergartener trapped in a car with six corpses of her family. Hind was subjected to a brutal onslaught as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) fired 335 bullets into the vehicle. Tragically, Hind did not survive, and the two paramedics, Yusuf Al-Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, who were sent to rescue her, were also killed by the IDF.

The 90-minute film takes place entirely in the claustrophobic emergency dispatch center of PRCS, where workers Omar, Rana and Mahdi take centre stage to coordinate Hind’s rescue mission while comforting her over a fragile telephone line.

The performances

Saja Kilani gives an unforgettable performance as Rana. Through her growing panic and her desperate attempts to comfort Hind over the phone, the audience gets a closer look at the crushing reality of the situation. She provides the film with its beating human heart, which you will think about long after the credits roll in.

On the other hand, Motaz Malhees, as Omar perfectly captures the frustration of the entire situation. His desperate attempts to get help, his sarcastic remarks and his anger are exactly what the viewer feels while watching this film.

In stark contrast stands a conflicted Mahdi, played by Amer Hlehel. The ambulance is eight minutes away from Hind, but he insists on getting approval from the Red Cross, the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Israeli army before starting the rescue mission. So, at first glance, he seems like the antagonist of the story and the barrier to Hind’s survival. Yet Ben Hania’s script only shows a man who is suffocating under the weight of bureaucratic apathy. To send his team out without a green light is a guaranteed death sentence, exposing the sadistic reality of the Israeli occupation, where even mercy requires a permit. We quickly realise that the true villain is the system of military red tape that forces humanitarians to beg for permission to save a terrified 5-year-old.

A commentary on digitised war and global indifference

Hearing Hind’s real voice echo across the cinema hall makes you question how the world let this happen. The sudden injection of raw, unedited video clips of the real Rana, Omar and Mahdi instantly shatters any illusion of fiction and forces you to confront the unvarnished reality. The fact that the film includes these real pieces is evidence enough that the war on Gaza is the most heavily documented tragedy in human history.

Furthermore, in the film, there comes a moment where the PRCS resorts to social media for help from the international community, showing the jarring reality of our times. The entire world could stream and share Hind’s terror, yet the global powers remained completely immobile. Ben Hania holds a mirror to the digital age where we can watch a tragedy unfold in high definition without batting an eye. What makes this realisation truly devastating is that even today, as Israel repeatedly violates the Gaza ceasefire agreement, the live-streamed destruction on our social media feeds has become a chilling routine.

Further cementing this global indifference was the troubled release of the film in India. Initially set for a March release, the film was blocked by India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), with its Indian distributor claiming that authorities feared its release could affect India-Israel relations. The film was later cleared with an A certificate and set for release across Indian cinemas on June 19.

This anxiety to shield a diplomatic ally proves the film’s core point that institutions of power are passively indifferent to tragedy and also to the art that forces the public to witness it.

Verdict

It would be fair to say that The Voice of Hind Rajab is an agonising watch. But it is crucial to sit in that agony and reflect on how the world has failed many children like Hind Rajab, who are caught in geopolitics. The film and Hind’s voice will definitely haunt you for a long time.

The Voice of Hind Rajab is in Indian theatres for a limited time. It is not to be missed.