Get set for one of the most harrowing film rides of your life. Forty-eight-year-old Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania delivers her most important to date, and one that could change the film industry’s staunch refusal to denounce Israel’s crimes against humanity. This is the very first time since the Gaza Genocide began in October 2023 that a major film festival has included a film that contains a real, raw, unflinching and unfiltered picture of Israel’s unspeakable atrocities in its Official Competition.

This 90-minute documentary, which was exec produced by Jonathan Glazer and Alfonso Cuaron, follows the staff of the Red Crescent call centre in Ramallah (in the West Bank) as they scramble to save the life of a five year-old girl trapped with the corpses of her uncle, aunt, and four cousins inside a vehicle in Gaza (52 miles from them). Israel fired 355 shots at the civilian vehicle. The devoted agents communicate with Hind on the telephone, repeatedly reassuring the child that aid is on its way. The audios are the real voice of the tiny Hind Rajab, while the call centre scenes are reenacted. Ben Hania is no stranger to blending fiction and documentary: she did it to outstanding results in her previous feature Four Daughters, which premiered in Cannes two years ago.

Call agent Omar (Motaz Malhees) tries to calm the helpless victim on the other side of the line, but his indignation is such that he’s soon crying like a baby, and unable to continue the conversation. Soft-spoken and motherly Hana (Saja Kilani) takes over, with the more stern Nisreen (Clara Khoury) occasionally lending a hand. They urge the Red Cross and the Palestinian Ministry of Health to coordinate with the Israeli Army a safe route for an ambulance. Their pragmatic boss Mahdi (Amer Hlehel) insists that they cannot send paramedics until they have a green light, lest they meet the safe fate as the 20 aid workers murdered by Israel (their photographs hang in Mahdi’s wall). A beautiful picture of a smiley Hind on a computer screen, combined with her mother’s pleas for action on another line, adds yet another extra layer of desperation to the proceedings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Omar eventually snaps.

At first, Hind thinks that her relatives are “sleeping”, in one of the most heartbreaking recordings. The realisation that they are in reality dead eventually dawns in the little girl. She hears shotguns and sees tanks pass “very, very close”, she says. It eventually surfaces that she’s wounded and bleeding. Hours later, the ambulance still has no green light to attend the site of the tragedy, which is just an eight-minute drive away. Omar suggests that they inform the Israeli army of the little girl, so that they can use her rescue as propaganda. That is very unlikely: someone notes that the voice of a little girl would never evoke the empathy from Israelis. Plus the IDF are well-equipped with infrared technology. This means that the army soldiers know that there is a small child trapped inside the vehicle debris. Their failure to rescue her is evidence of their sadism. It becomes increasingly clear that there are no limits to Israel’s desire for Palestinian annihilation.

What makes The Voice of Hind Rajab so powerful isn’t just the fact that the audios are real. The call centre reenactments are bursting with passion and authenticity. All actors deliver heartfelt performances. Ben Hania’s firm directorial grip ensure that the dialogues never lapse into melodrama territory. The outcome is as real as it gets. You will feel like you are in the control room with Omar, Rana, Mahdi and Nisreen. It is extremely uncomfortable to watch their soaring desperation in the face of their near-total impotence.

This Tunisian-French production is a call-to-action: it is the duty of every person in the cinema to honour the voice of Hind (and the 50,000+ children that Israel murdered/injured). Anyone with a scintilla of humanity and dignity must make their voices heard loud and clear.

The Voice of Hind Rajab premiered in the Official Competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. Alexander Payne’s jury should award the Golden Lion to this eviscerating piece of filmmaking. Not since Cannes awarded the Palme d’Or to Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911 in 2004, has a movie with an urgent and scathing geopolitical message won a major international film festival.

Unfortunately, moral cowardice and appeasement prevailed and instead the main award of the American-led jury went to an American movie.

This is this writer’s film of the year.

Also showing in the 73rd edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the 59th BFI London Film Festival, the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the 5th Red Sea International Film Festival, and others.

In cinemas on Friday, January 16th (2026).