The Voice Of Hind Rajab exposes the harrowing realities of Gaza through the spine-chilling story of six-year-old Hind Rajab’s killing.
High-profile Hollywood figures Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Rooney Mara, and others join as executive producers, amplify calls for justice.
Venice Film Festival faces public protests and criticism, highlighting tensions between art, politics, and global accountability.
Written and directed by Academy-nominated filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) emerges from Gaza, recounting the harrowing story of six-year-old Hind Rajab, killed by Israeli forces. The film was made in collaboration with Hind's mother Wesam, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and a cast of talented Palestinian actors. It is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, one of the world’s oldest festivals, held annually for nearly a century, before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival later in the year. High-profile Hollywood figures, including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, and directors Alfonso Cuarón and Jonathan Glazer, have joined as executive producers, lending more visibility to the project. Moreover, Tunisia has now picked the film as its official selection for Best International Feature at the Oscars. The National Center for Cinema and Image confirmed the news on Thursday, a mere two days after the initial onboarding announcement.
Phoenix, long vocal on Gaza, stated in a podcast, “What’s going on in Gaza is so horrible. There’s no justification for children starving to death in a conflict. You don’t have to understand geopolitics to get that, just human rights.” He joined Mara, Pedro Pascal, and Guillermo del Toro in signing a letter condemning the film industry’s silence over Israel’s ongoing military campaign and its lethal consequences. Alfonso Cuarón and Olivia Colman also publicly criticised the Academy for its muted response to the attack and arrest of Palestinian co-director of No Other Land (2024) Hamdan Ballal and the killing of photojournalist Fatma Hassona, protagonist of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (2025). Glazer, who is Jewish and won an Oscar for The Zone of Interest (2023), used his acceptance speech to denounce the instrumentalisation of the Holocaust to justify war crimes in Gaza: “We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict, for so many innocent people,” he said in March 2024.
On the film, writer-director Hania remarked, “At the heart of this film is something very simple and very hard to live with. I cannot accept a world where a child calls for help and no one comes. That pain, failure, belongs to all of us. This story isn’t just about Gaza. It speaks to a universal grief.” Hania, whose oeuvre includes Oscar-nominated films such as Four Daughters (2023) and The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020), consistently explores the human costs of political unrest. She added, “Cinema can preserve a memory and resist amnesia. May Hind Rajab’s voice be heard.”
Ahead of Venice’s opening ceremony, protesters held a “Free Palestine” banner outside the festival, demanding recognition for a crisis dominating global headlines. Jury head Alexander Payne remarked that they were “jury members and not politicians,” implying unpreparedness to address Gaza, while festival director Alberto Barbera expressed “huge sadness and suffering vis-a-vis what is happening in Gaza and Palestine.” Despite this, activists will hold a pro-Palestinian demonstration on August 30, underscoring the ongoing push for visibility alongside films such as The Voice of Hind Rajab.
