52 Films by Women Vol 9. 48. The Voice of Hind Rajab (Director: Kaouther Ben Hania)
Many films demand that the audience suspend disbelief. The Voice of Hind Rajab invites the audience to succumb to hope. A mixture of drama and documentary, writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania’s film reconstructs the response of Palestine Red Crescent call centre staff to a real-life plea from a young child. Many viewers will watch the movie knowing the outcome in advance. Yet, as you watch it, you reject despair. You don’t want to believe in the worst in humanity, that the occupants of a tank would target a five-year-old girl trapped in a car, the sole survivor of an operation that killed five members of her family, now in touch with her parents and pleading for help. Yet the film confirms that when it comes to clearing areas of the West Bank, the Israeli Army view Palestinian civilians as enemy combatants regardless of age, dehumanising them.
Ben Hania’s film belongs to the sub-genre of ‘fixed location
thrillers’, such as The Guilty, Locke and Buried.
The action takes place off-screen and is suggested by dialogue and sound
effects. The protagonists rely on their power of persuasion – their rhetoric –
to affect events. However, there are parameters: a channel of communication
maintained throughout the drama’s length; a protocol to be observed; and an
understanding of opposing forces. The audience is drawn to the characters’
resourcefulness and appalled or thrilled by changes in the operating
environment. We see ourselves in those responding to the call.
The film uses the recordings of young Hind’s pleas for help,
matching to the actors’ voices to those responding to her. The film focuses on
five Ramallah-based members of the Palestine Red Crescent. Omar (Motaz
Malhees), who takes a call from a member of the Hamada family and telephones
occupants trapped in a car. Rana (Saja Kilani), Omar’s supervisor, who is about
to leave at the end of her shift when Omar grabs her arm to notify her that a
child is in danger. At some point, she takes off her coat, but we don’t see
this. Nisreen (Clara Khoury), a welfare counsellor, who intervenes when
colleagues are stressed. In extremis, she takes over a call or advises
colleagues on how to change their approach. Mahdi (Amer Hlehel), the response
coordinator, obtains safe routes for extractions of the injured or vulnerable.
He is contact with the Red Cross and only authorises the despatch of rescue
crews in the locality once a green light is given. This ensures that ambulance
crews are not targeted by the Israeli Army. Leila (Nesbat Serhan) is the team’s
social media officer. She posts material online about those in danger to give
the Israeli Army a chance to respond. As Omar puts it, they can ‘come in, take
their pictures for their propaganda’ without any harm to themselves. Leila only
appears in the latter part of the film, asking for voice recordings to bring to
the authorities’ attention.
A caption announces the date: 29 January 2024. We see
Palestinian Red Crescent workers relaxing during a break and taking a series of
calls, conducting themselves with calm professionalism. Two members of the team
play ‘rock paper scissors.’ This changes at 14:30 when Omar takes a call from
Hind’s uncle. There is a car hemmed in by gunfire at Fares Garage. It has been
there since 13:00. Omar speaks to a young woman who is soon silent. The line is
not great. Initially, a black silhouette is placed on Omar’s desk to symbolise
the dead woman. The Hamada family call the team. There is somebody alive in the
car. The team calls back. Hind – referred to as Hanood by the team – answers,
describing herself as with her family. Very soon we learn that her father and
mother are at home with her three-year-old brother. She is in a car with her
aunt, uncle and cousins, all of whom are dead.
Having seized Rana’s arm and put her on her phone, Omar
updates Mahdi. There is a team eight minutes away, but a protocol must be
followed. In the film, Mahdi explains to Omar why he can’t just send a team in
to retrieve the young girl, who is hiding, although whether the real Omar
actually unaware of the protocol is moot; the explanation could be for our
benefit. All requests are placed through the Red Cross. Mahdi relays the
situation to an English-speaking contact named Vanessa. Requests need to be
approved by COGAT (Coordination of Government Activity in the Territories), an
arm of the Israeli Ministry of Defence. There is no direct contact between the
Palestine Red Crescent and the Israeli Government. There is no ‘service level
agreement’ response time either. In the meantime, Rana attempts to soothe Hind,
getting her to recite a passage from the Koran, and complimenting her. She
risks confusing the child with the word ‘coordination’. ‘Explain it to her like
it’s a family,’ suggests Nisreen who is drawn into the call as Rana becomes
increasingly more distressed. Omar attempts to get the ambulance crew to fetch
her without an approved route or greenlight being in place. Mahdi, under
increasing pressure from the Hamada family stops him, showing him a collection
of photographs of dead crew members, many of whom had families. Mahdi is
determined not to add any more crew to the list.
Ben Hania’s camera stays close to the team, following them
as they move from one desk to another. Tempers explode. Omar accuses Mahdi of
being weak and the reason why their country is occupied. Mahdi looks at Omar
without replying, not wishing to inflame tensions further. Omar is prevented
from smoking indoors but does so on a balcony. He cannot help wanting to do
something. When the approved route appears, Mahdi doesn’t want Omar to see it
and closes his laptop. The route is nothing without a greenlight. At the height
of his anger, Omar curses Vanessa, causing their team to cease coordination.
Nisreen suggests contacting the Ministry of Health, an alternative back
channel.
Throughout this process, and through various calls to Hind,
tension increases. At one point, Mahdi takes Omar’s phone to stop him
undermining protocol and hides in the bathroom. Omar follows him and asks for
his phone. Mahdi slides it under the door. Omar switches on a multi-player
‘shoot them up’ video game. Mahdi joins in. We sense that team members know
each other’s release valve.
Pictured: A photograph of young Hind Rajab is placed on a glass partition. Palestine Red Crescent call centre worker, Omar (Motaz Malhees) makes a great grave appeal to colleagues in a scene from the dramatic reconstruction, 'The Voice of Hind Rajab', written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. Still courtesy of WILLA (US) / Altitude Film Distribution (UK)
Periodically, the length of the call is written on a glass
partition. ‘+60’, ‘+120’, ‘+150’. Hind fears nightfall. There is a point at
which they can’t hear her. Mahdi cancels support. Then she speaks and the
rescue mission is back on.
When the audio footage is downloaded to be posted on social
media, Omar is sceptical. ‘Put that the girl is injured and bleeding,’ suggests
Mahdi. ‘As if that would stir their empathy,’ snaps Omar. He swipes through digital
images of other children who were casualties of Israel’s operation.
The climax is tense then heart breaking. The audio leads us
to draw our own conclusions. The first and last sound we hear in the film is
the crashing of waves against a shoreline. ‘Hind loved the beach,’ her mother
explains to camera in documentary footage. ‘She wanted the war to be over so
she could play in the sand.’ Ben Hania includes footage of Hind in happier days
as well as the recovery of family members.
How do we respond to what we are shown? We wonder whether
the team would have achieved a different result if they had behaved more
professionally and been less human. Alienating Vanessa didn’t help Hind’s
chances. Ben Hania doesn’t apportion blame to the call centre staff. They
worked under intense pressure with an incredible sense of a young life at
stake. Their empathy separates them from the perpetrators of the attack on the
Hamada family car, which was left pock-marked with 355 bullet holes.
Ben Hania has said that she wants Hind Rajab to be held in
the same regard as Anne Frank, the Jewish schoolgirl who kept a diary while
being hidden from the Nazis. Both were brave. Both suffered at the hands of a
force larger than themselves. The film is both political and empathetic. It is
an unforgettable piece of cinema, as gripping and vital as anything you’ve
seen.
Reviewed at Screen Thirteen, Cineworld Wandsworth, Southwest London, Tuesday 27 January 2026, 12:00 midday screening
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