Tunisian film highlights the human cost of warmongering Israel

The Voice of Hind Rajab, a compelling Tunisian film about the human cost of military tactics used by the warmongering state of Israel, will screen at the Joburg Film Festival this Sunday. 

The film premieres in South Africa at a moment when the United States and Israel are waging a bombing campaign against Iran that has already killed more than 1 300 people, according to the Iranian Red Crescent, while Unicef says that more than 180 children are among the dead.

Against this grim backdrop, the arrival of an Oscar-nominated film offering an intimate and unflinching view of the impact of Israel’s military violence feels particularly timely. 

Screening for the first time in South Africa as part of the Joburg Film Festival programme, The Voice of Hind Rajab forces audiences to confront the human consequences of war through one devastating story.

Directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, the film reconstructs the real-life events surrounding Red Crescent volunteers responding to an emergency call in Gaza. Ben Hania builds the film around the operations room where volunteers attempt to coordinate a rescue. 

The narrative moves between actors portraying the call-centre responders and real cellphone footage of the actual volunteers who took part in the operation. The result is a striking hybrid of documentary and dramatisation. 

In less capable hands such an approach might have felt disjointed, but Ben Hania weaves these elements together into a narrative that remains gripping throughout, even when it becomes almost unbearably difficult to watch.

The events depicted in the 90-minute film unfolded on 29 January 2024, making this less a historical reconstruction than a reflection of a crisis that is still ongoing. Ben Hania’s narrative structure gives the film an immediacy that makes it feel less like a record of the past and more like a dispatch from the present.

That sense of urgency is reinforced by the reality that Israel’s campaign against Palestinians continues even as its military operations expand elsewhere in the region.

At the centre of the story is six-year-old Hind Rajab. She is trapped in a car with her aunt, uncle and four cousins when she manages to place an emergency call to the Red Crescent. As the volunteers speak to her, it becomes clear that everyone else in the vehicle has already been killed by Israeli Defence Forces gunfire. The little girl hides inside the car, terrified and alone, surrounded by the bodies of her family members.

Inside the call centre, several volunteers become entangled in the unfolding crisis. Omar (Motaz Malhees) is the first responder who speaks directly with Hind. Mahdi (Amer Hlehel) carries the impossible burden of coordinating a rescue mission without risking the lives of additional responders. Rana (Saja Kilani), Omar’s supervisor, becomes increasingly involved as the situation escalates, while counsellor Nisreen (Clara Khoury) is drawn into the emotional toll of the call.

What makes the film particularly remarkable is Ben Hania’s decision to use the real audio recordings of Hind Rajab’s emergency calls as part of the narrative. From the moment her voice is heard, the film transforms into a heart-stopping race against time.

The director supplements the recordings with archival footage of Hind during happier moments with her family. Later in the film, viewers also see real footage of Hind’s mother identifying her daughter’s body and speaking publicly about the tragedy.

Such choices inevitably raise ethical questions. A film built around the voice of a deceased child could easily slip into exploitation or emotional manipulation if handled insensitively. Ben Hania avoids that trap through one crucial decision: she refuses to dramatise Hind’s experience inside the car.

No actor portrays Hind or her relatives and the audience never sees the interior of the vehicle during the ordeal. Instead, the horror of the situation unfolds entirely through Hind’s voice on the recordings.

All the real-life adults involved in the rescue operation are portrayed by actors, but Hind’s voice remains her own. Her recordings are used with the permission of her mother. The effect is a powerful fusion of drama and documentary that preserves the emotional authenticity of the moment while allowing the film to reconstruct the broader context of the attempted rescue.

Beyond its formal experimentation, The Voice of Hind Rajab is also a searing political work. The film functions as a direct indictment of the Israeli government and the Israeli Defence Forces, not through overt polemic but through the devastating clarity of the events themselves. 

By focusing on the frantic efforts of humanitarian responders and the voice of a terrified child waiting for help, the film strips away the abstractions that often dominate discussions of war.

What remains is a stark portrait of how military power is experienced by civilians on the ground, particularly children.

Since its international premiere, the film has sparked intense debate at festivals and screenings around the world, with audiences and critics alike confronting the ethical and political questions it raises. For many viewers, the film has become one of the most emotionally overwhelming cinematic responses yet to the ongoing violence in Gaza.

Produced as a collaboration between Tunisia and France, The Voice of Hind Rajab was selected as Tunisia’s official submission to the Academy Awards and ultimately secured a nomination for Best International Feature Film. 

It stands out not only for its subject matter but also because Ben Hania is the only woman director among the nominees in the category.

Just over two years after the events it depicts, the film arrives not as a distant historical reflection but as a stark reminder that the story it tells is still unfolding.

The Voice of Hind Rajab will be screened on Sunday, 8 March as part of the Joburg Film Festival. Tickets are available on the JFF website.