Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania says her new film about six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed during the war in Gaza, was made as a way to confront helplessness and bear witness to her story.
Ben Hania said she decided to make the film after hearing an emergency phone call recording of Hind pleading for help while trapped in Gaza City in 2024.
“They’re shooting at me. Please come get me. I’m scared,” the girl is heard saying in the recording, which forms the centrepiece of the docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab, released in UK cinemas last week.
The two-time Oscar-nominated director said the recording deeply affected her and prompted her to pause another project she was working on.
“It haunted me,” Ben Hania told the BBC. “I was angry, sad and felt helpless. I asked myself what I could do. I am a filmmaker, so I make films.”
She said the project was a way “not to accept, to bear witness” and to ensure Hind’s voice is heard beyond borders.
Hind Rajab was travelling with her family when their car was hit during Israeli military operations in Gaza. Several relatives were killed. Hind later spoke by phone with volunteers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, who tried to guide an ambulance to reach her. The ambulance was also struck, and Hind, her family members and two paramedics were killed.
Independent investigations by Forensic Architecture, Earshot and journalists from Al Jazeera concluded that damage to the car and ambulance was consistent with Israeli tank fire. The Israel Defence Force said the case is still under review by its Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism.
The film tells the story from the perspective of Red Crescent call centre workers in Ramallah who tried to keep Hind calm as they worked to secure a safe route for rescuers. It combines real audio from Hind’s final calls with a dramatized reconstruction using actors.
Ben Hania said the film is “based on true events” and is intended to provoke empathy rather than serve as an investigation.
“Cinema can do something better, which is provoking empathy,” she said.
The film has received strong reactions from critics and audiences, including a record 23-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. It has also been nominated for best foreign language film at the Golden Globe Awards and is shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination.
Ben Hania said she hopes the film will ensure that Hind Rajab is not forgotten.
“This is not just a story,” she said. “This is history in the making.”
With inputs from BBC