Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania — Screenplay by Kaouther Ben Hania.
Every once in a while, when you review films, you come across a film that is so emotionally powerful, raw, and important that it hits you like a sledgehammer right to your midsection. A film that is so overwhelming, urgent, timely, and important that you simply must review it, but which, at the same time, features elements that make it difficult to write a conventional review for it. The Voice of Hind Rajab is that kind of film. This is a film about something horrifying that really happened as recently as 2024. It is a film that makes bold choices that perhaps won’t sit well with some viewers, but whose bold and perhaps controversial choices must be included to live up to the spirit of the project. As a film, it dances on the line between documentary and a more conventional narrative feature as a docudrama that packs an emotional wallop. I think it is fair to say that there will be many people who, after they see this film, will never be the same.
Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab takes place on January 29th, 2024, when volunteers of the humanitarian organization Red Crescent in Palestine responded to an emergency call from a five-year-old girl named Hind Rajab. At that time, the girl was trapped in a car that had been fired upon, and now she was there all alone and scared, hiding next to the dead bodies of family members who died as a result of the vehicle having been fired upon. With the tanks of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) still close by the family car, the girl’s life was still very much in jeopardy, and the volunteers thus moved hurriedly to figure out how to safely get an ambulance to the young girl and bring her to safety. The film depicts the attempts by the humanitarian organization to 1) get the green light to send an ambulance to Hind Rajab by navigating labyrinthine military bureaucracy and 2) their attempts to keep the young girl on the line and ensure her safety. If you’ve been following the news closely, you’ll know its conclusion. You’ll know that it doesn’t have a happy ending.
I won’t sugarcoat this at all. This is a devastating film about a real-life event that is absolutely heart-shattering. The writer-director manages to conjure up all the intended feelings in you: hopelessness, fury, broken-heartedness, and helplessness. Kaouther Ben Hania clearly intended the film to be both a call to action and a confrontation. Some viewers will feel the film take them by their shoulders, shake them out of desperation, and jolt them awake as an outcry for humanity. But the spirit of the film is also to have this young girl’s voice be amplified, and her memory live on. How does the film do this? Well, for starters, it actually uses Hind Rajab’s voice, as the title indicates. Rather than hiring an actress to do this, the voice you’re hearing throughout the film is that of the young girl. This is an ethically questionable decision and likely a controversial choice to many, but I think it is justified. For one, the filmmaker got the approval of Hind Rajab’s mother, and, frankly, some events are so horrible that one must ensure the documents verifying their existence must be shown on the biggest screens and to as many people as possible, to pierce the veil of misinformation in the post-factual era that we’re currently living in. The filmmaker clearly realizes this, as another way the film dances on the line between narrative feature and documentary is by utilizing the voices and visages of the volunteers who were actually there. Every so often, instead of hearing the actor portraying the Red Crescent volunteer, we hear the actual person who was on the phone back then, and then, in one scene, one character holds up a phone to record a conversation and in the very same shot we see both the actors playing the scene and the phone, on which we see footage of the actual Red Crescent volunteers.
Those aforementioned elements make this an incredibly strong film that leaves an incredibly emotional impact on you as a viewer. It is a necessary and very well-made film, and its central message is communicated in a way that is really effective, but I think, as this is a proper review, you also have to look at the dramatization elements of this in a way that is honest about whether or not there are shortcomings. With a short runtime of only right around 90 minutes, The Voice of Hind Rajab manages to control and ratchet up the tension to an extent that makes the film feel as harrowing as it ought to. It is an incredibly tough watch that left me in a puddle of tears. Structurally, it feels very similar to Gustav Möller’s The Guilty (also known as Den Skyldige, which was remade in America by Antoine Fuqua a few years ago). I also think that the actors portraying the Red Crescent volunteers do a very good job with the material. Motaz Malhees and Saja Kilani play the volunteers who primarily communicate with Hind Rajab, and their performances are passionate, emotional, and powerful. Amer Hlehel has a very tricky role as the boss who is responsible for assessing whether they have received the proper response to ensure the safety of not just Hind Rajab but also the first responders in the ambulance they hope to send. The character becomes a little bit of a punching bag as Malhees’ character’s desperation makes him yell angrily at Hlehel over them not getting the response they desire swiftly. He, too, delivers a solid performance. However, I do think the film sometimes stumbles in the dramatization when it comes to what characters are doing when they’re not on the phone with Hind Rajab. Although there are powerful exchanges, there are also other strange choices, like when one character hides in the bathroom, and I also think one performance choice by Malhees very early in the film feels a little rushed.
In closing, I have to say that the film reminded me a little bit of Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. Or, perhaps more exactly, of my own review of that film. In that review, I mentioned that I had overheard someone say that they didn’t feel like they needed to follow the news or the goings on in the world, and I strongly criticized the idea that it was at all acceptable to detach from a broken world without in some way engaging with or reflecting on it. Like The Zone of Interest, The Voice of Hind Rajab is a powerful call to action, and Kaouther Ben Hania’s film is more direct in its approach, given how recent the events depicted in the film are. This is a film that should be shattering to you. It should infuriate you. It is a tough watch, but we must not look away. We have to open our eyes and see what injustices and crimes are being carried out. We must let voices be heard, and we have to listen. For this reason, and because it is also, on its own, a powerful film, The Voice of Hind Rajab is a must-watch film.
9 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
