The Voice of Hind Rajab receives record 23-minute ovation at Venice premiere

Venice: Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab received a historic 23-minute, 50-second, standing ovation at its premiere at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, the longest ever recorded at the event on Wednesday, September 3.

The docu-drama recounts the final hours of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who died in Gaza Strip on January 29, 2024, when Israeli fire hit her family’s car. Her voice was captured in a call to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, pleading for help while trapped beside her slain relatives.

An ambulance was dispatched but struck before reaching her. Both medics were killed. Hind’s body was found days later beside that of her cousin Layan.

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The world premiere left much of the audience in tears. Chants of “Free Palestine” filled the theatre as actor Motaz Malhees raised a Palestinian flag. Ben Hania stood on stage with Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, who held a portrait of Hind.

Left to right: Israeli actor Amer Hlehel, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, actress Saja Kilani, actor Motaz Malhees and actress Clara Khoury pose with a portrait of Hind Rajab at the 82nd International Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, September 3. Photo: AFP

Backed by an international roster of producers including Brad Pitt, Alfonso Cuarón and Jonathan Glazer, the film blends documentary audio with dramatic reconstruction to underline what Ben Hania described as the “human stories reduced to statistics.”

The ovation surpassed festival records, eclipsing Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth at Cannes in 2006 and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door at Venice last year.

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Speaking from Gaza, Hind’s mother, Wissam Hamada, told AFP that she hoped the film’s global attention would help “end the war and honour my daughter’s memory.”

Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 63,000 Palestinians, including at least 18,000 children, according to the territory’s health ministry. Thousands more remain missing under the rubble.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include the video link.

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