Gaza Drama The Voice of Hind Rajab Rocks Venice With Record 23-Minute-Plus Ovation Amid ‘Free Palestine’ Chants

Following an overwhelming emotional premiere, The Voice of Hind Rajab is tipped to bag the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Kaouther Ben Hania’s feature received a colossal 23-minute-plus standing ovation amid a swell of “Free Palestine” chants. One of the festival’s most talked-about titles, The Voice of Hind Rajab reconstructs the events surrounding the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her four cousins, her aunt and uncle, and the two paramedics who came to her rescue after their car came under fire by Israeli forces as they tried to flee Gaza City in January 2024. When she was eventually reached, both Rajab and the paramedics were found dead, with media investigations concluding that an Israeli tank had likely fired 335 rounds into the car. The phone recording of Rajab’s voice from her call to the Palestinian Red Cross Society is used in the film.

Hind Rajab actor Motaz Malhees took one of many Palestinian flags in the audience and held it up in the gallery. Several audience members were seen and heard sobbing during the film — and some were still crying even after it ended. In a clear effort to get the room to disperse, the lights were dimmed in the theatre. Yet the clapping continued.

In his review, Deadline’s Damon Wise says, “The Voice of Hind Rajab could be the lightning rod that supporters of the Gazan cause are waiting for, an urgent procedural that uses cinematic means — close, hand-held takes and a camera that paces around like an expectant father — to make its point.” In Venice, it’s considered that Pedro Almodóvar’s Golden Lion-winning English-language debut, last year’s The Room Next Door, had been the ovation record-holder at 18 minutes. The longest recorded applause at a film festival had been a 22-minute standing ovation for Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth at the Cannes Film Festival. The Voice of Hind Rajab has now surpassed it.

Last week, a number of Hollywood luminaries boarded the film as executive producers including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón and Jonathan Glazer. Phoenix and Mara were in attendance from the Venice press conference to the premiere.

At the film’s press conference this afternoon, Ben Hania and her cast entered the room, and were greeted with a standing ovation, after which actress Saja Kilani took the mic and gave an impassioned speech on behalf of the film’s crew.

“Enough of the mass killing, the starvation, the dehumanization, the destruction, and the ongoing occupation,” Kilani said.

“This film is not an opinion or a fantasy. It is anchored in truth. Hind’s story carries the weight of an entire people. Her voice is one amongst 19000 children that were killed in Gaza in the last two years alone. It is the voice of every daughter and every son with the right to live, to dream, to exist in dignity. Yet all of it was stolen in front of our unblinking eyes.”

Kilani added: “Hind’s story is a about a child crying out, ‘Save me.’ And the haunting question is: how have we let a child beg for life and go unheard? No one can live in peace while even one child is still fighting for life. Let Hind Rajab’s voice echo in every theatre, let it remind you of the silence the world has built around Gaza, let it name the genocide that silence protects and let it pierce the word: enough.”

Tunisia has already selected the film as its submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. Hania’s last film Four Daughters played in Cannes main competition and went on to be nominated for Best Documentary at the 2024 Oscars. Hania has another Best International Feature nomination for The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020).