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There are voices that, once heard, cannot be unheard.
For Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, the voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab — pleading for help as Israeli forces surrounded her family’s car in Gaza in January 2024 — became an artistic and moral imperative she could not ignore.
“Once you hear her voice, you can’t unhear it,” Ben Hania says, recalling the moment she first encountered the audio recording while scrolling through social media at a Los Angeles airport during her Oscar campaign for Four Daughters. “It wasn’t really a decision. I didn’t say I chose the subject of my next movie. I was working on another film, and I stopped when I heard her voice. I needed to respond to the feeling I was experiencing — a very deep sense of helplessness, sadness and anger.”
That impulse became “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a Tunisia–France co-production that has emerged as one of the most urgent and emotionally devastating films of the year. The narrative feature follows a Red Crescent response team racing to rescue the trapped child, incorporating the real audio recordings of Hind’s conversations with dispatchers. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it received one of the longest standing ovations of the event, and has since become Tunisia’s official submission in the Academy Awards race, landing on the Oscar shortlist for best international feature.
Ben Hania’s approach was guided by ethical restraint as much as urgency. “From the beginning, I knew the recording — Hind’s voice — had to be central,” she tells Variety during the Awards Circuit Podcast. “I wanted to honor her voice.” Choosing a narrative reenactment over a traditional documentary stemmed from questions of perspective and responsibility. “Showing what was inside the car, or showing Hind herself, was never an option,” she explains. “I’m not the first filmmaker confronted with filming genocide. Those questions have been asked before. Showing the death of a child is not ethical.”
The film’s journey from Venice to wider distribution has been fraught — a reality Ben Hania anticipated. “I knew from the moment I started this project, at a time when conversation was almost impossible, that it would be a difficult ride,” she says. “I knew the film would be scrutinized, that I would have to fact-check everything again and again.” Still, audience reactions have been strikingly consistent, with viewers describing the experience as emotionally overwhelming and transformative.
As awards season unfolds and the film reaches new audiences, Ben Hania remains focused on her core purpose: ensuring Hind Rajab’s voice is not forgotten. She recently met Hind’s mother — now evacuated from Gaza — at the Doha Film Festival. Though unable to watch the film herself, Hind’s mother has attended screenings to witness audience reactions.
“In Gaza, she couldn’t give her daughter a proper funeral,” Ben Hania says. “For her, being with the audience, seeing their response, has been very consoling. It gives her strength.”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.
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