Gaza War. The Israeli army orders the evacuation of the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood. On 29 January 2024, Red Crescent telephone worker Omar receives a phone call from the 5-year year old Hind Rajab, a girl who is trapped in a car that was shot at from a tank, which left five of her relatives dead. The car is stranded near the Fares gas station, an 8-minute car drive from the Red Crescent building. Omar is pressuring his boss Mahdi, the coordinator, to dispatch an ambulance to get Hind, but they must first wait for the approval of the Israeli authorities. Rana and Nisreen are also on the phone, talking to the girl, trying to calm her. After a green light, an ambulance is finally dispatched to pick up Hind, but is shot at and the contact breaks. At 7:30 pm, Hind is not heard of again. Weeks later, after Israeli army withdrawal, Hind's corpse is found in the car that was shot at with 335 bullets.
"The Voice of Hind Rajab" is a movie that destroys you. One cannot enjoy it, it is impossibly painful, but it is an essential watch. From the cinematic aspect, it is remarkable—it is an re-enactment of the Red Crescent workers who talked on the phone to Hind Rajab, it plays out only within this one location (except for the epilogue which includes archive footage of crime investigators and Hind's mother), and yet it is engaging, gripping and absorbing from start to finish. The title character, the 5-year old girl, is never seen, only heard via audio. The director Kaouther Ben Hania elegantly blends in real-life audio of Hind with actors who play Red Crescent workers, and even in one scene shows actors playing said workers Nisreen and Omar sitting and standing on the table while talking to Hind, while someone is holding a mobile phone in front of the camera, playing a recording of actual footage of Nisreen and Omar in this exact pose, overlayed over actors re-enacting this scene. And yet, the human dimension is the one that stays with you the most. Hearing the voice of this 5-year old child, scared, crying for help, hoping someone will save her from the car, surrounded by five dead relatives, is the ultimate agony of helplessness. It is impossible to watch it without becoming emotional. But then again, this is a story that simply had to be told. Humanity owed it to Hind to tell this story. The viewers share their frustration with Omar who argues with his boss Mahdi that they were not given green light to simply go get the girl—after all, she is only a 40-minute walk away from them, and they have been talking to her over the phone for two hours. Still, anyone who is not given authorization to go to a certain route during Gaza War, will simply be shot, and as the finale shows, some will be shot even in an ambulance van and even with this authorization. This is a chronicle of a war crime of cruel treatment and murder, and the people who just watch this, without having any power to stop it. Some of the most tear-inducing movies that will make you cry are not "Titanic" or "Life is Beautiful"—but "The Voice of Hind Rajab".
Grade:+++
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