“I’m with you. I’m with you,” Red Crescent Emergency worker Rana (Saja Kilani) chants into her headset. She is talking to Hind “Halnood” Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car in Northern Gaza with her dead family scattered around her. If the concept of The Voice of Hind Rajab sounds familiar, it’s because the call center’s attempts to rescue her were posted on social media and went viral around the world. Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Henia, known for seamlessly blending reality with fiction, takes this harrowing story and adds a heartbreaking twist: the little girl on the other side of the phone is not an actor but a recording of the real emergency call.
The Voice of Hind Rajab takes place at this singular Gaza call center and covers the three hours (give or take) from Hind’s first attempt to reach out for help to when the ambulance arrives at her location. Omar A. Alqam (Motaz Malhees) took the initial call from her cousin and was immediately drawn into the case, even receiving information from Hind’s uncle in Germany. He quickly brings it to the attention of coordinator Mahdi M. Aljamal (Amer Hlehel), who must communicate with a section of the Israeli government in order to get aid into Northern Gaza, even though they are the ones attacking the area.
As Rana and Omar try to keep Hind on the phone, tensions rise between the center’s male coworkers. Mahdi wants to go by the book, reaching out to the appropriate channels, including the Red Cross, in order to keep everyone on the rescue team safe. Omar recognizes how much time has passed and how soon Hind could be found by IDF soldiers. An eight-minute eta soon turns into hours as they jump through hoops to find the fastest and safest way to get Hind out. It’s here where Ben Henia plays into heightened melodrama that feels unneeded. The source material is enough not to play into hysterics that may or may not have happened.
The most powerful part of The Voice of Hind Rajab is the actual voice of Hind Rajab. How Ben Hania deploys it in just the right moments, and how the actors perform off a recording, should be studied. It’s a heartbreaking and immersive narrative device. As a director, Ben Hania mostly sticks to a realistic approach. In addition to using the real phone call and keeping the setting to one place, the cast is focused down to four main players. Everything feels contained, which adds to the film’s intimacy and urgency. There’s a powerful shot near the film’s end where the center’s therapist, Nisreen Jeries Qawas (Clara Khoury), is talking to Hind on the phone while being filmed for social media. As Khoury is blurred onscreen, the phone’s screen is in focus and playing the real video of Qawas that millions saw online. It’s little touches like that that really drive Ben Henia’s message home.
As of publishing, The Voice of Hind Rajab, the most important film of the year, doesn’t have American distribution. That doesn’t mean Kaouther Ben Henia doesn’t have a whole team of executive producers behind her, including Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer, Alfonso Cuarón, Joaquin Phoenix, and Rooney Mara. The film has already been screened at a few U.S. film festivals. It will be seen and Hind will be heard.
