'The Voice of Hind Rajab' Wins Silver Lion Grand Jury Award at Venice Film Festival

Sept. 8—The heartbreaking Palestinian film "The Voice of Hind Rajab" has won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, which is the second-place award, at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. The docudrama received this prestigious honor for its powerful portrayal of the death of a five-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza.

The debut press screening of the film at the Festival Sept. 3 had created what one seasoned movie critic said was an “atmosphere that was like nothing this longtime festivalgoer has ever seen.” The standing ovation lasted nearly 23 minutes, a festival record. The film has no bloodshed and no images of violence, yet even the movie crew was constantly in tears during the making of the film. The film uses tapes of cell phone conversations between the girl and family members and the Red Crescent to tell its story of senseless slaughter of innocents, an everyday occurrence in Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Based on true events, the story started on January 29, 2024 when Israeli forces demanded that the residents of Gaza City evacuate the area immediately. The family of Hind Rajab, a six-year old Palestinian girl attempted to flee the area and began to drive north in the family car. 

But they stopped at a gas station a few hundred meters away and became trapped by Israeli forces. Hind’s 15-year old cousin, Layan, called an uncle saying that their parked car was surrounded by Israeli soldiers who were firing at the car. Layan told the uncle that the Israelis killed everyone in the car except Layan and Hind. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent called the two girls in the car later that afternoon. While Layan was on the phone, there were 62 gun shots and the line went dead in under one minute. Only five-year old Hind remained alive in the car. The Red Crescent called back immediately, and Hind picked up the call. The Red Crescent arranged permission from Israeli authorities to send an ambulance to rescue Hind, but as the ambulance turned onto the street where Hind was located, there was a loud explosion and contact was lost with the ambulance, which had been attacked and was destroyed.

Hind was still alone in the car surrounded by the dead bodies of her family members. The Red Crescent was able to get Hind’s mother on the phone, and they all tried to keep Hind talking. She said that she did not want to talk because every time she opened her mouth, blood came out and she did not want to get her clothes dirty which would be difficult for her mother to clean. Hind said that it was getting dark outside and that she was afraid. She begged them to come and take her away. The call dropped and the Red Crescent was never able to regain contact with her. It was the final phone call of her life. 

For nearly 2 weeks rescue workers were not allowed to enter the area, but when they finally arrived, they found the destroyed ambulance and the family’s parked car with 335 Israeli bullet holes. Hind and her family were buried together outside the Al-Shifa Hospital. Their murders became a rallying-cry around the world.

Tunisian movie director Kaouther Ben Hania obtained the full 70 minutes of the recorded phone conversations from the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency call center in Ramallah and also interviewed Hind’s mother. The movie allows the recorded voice of Hind to tell the story as the viewer is put in the heart-wrenching position of the call center workers. In the call center, we see the photos of the 18 “humanitarian worker martyrs” who had been killed in earlier missions trying to rescue others. The movie trailer can be seen here.