Sawt Hind Rajab

A black screen pierced by a thin white line reveals the sound graph of a voice. Like a dark shroud, it covers the film’s images at regular intervals. It is the real-life recording of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was trapped in a car with the bodies of six relatives, all killed by the Israeli army in Gaza. As gunfire continues to strike the vehicle, she reaches the Palestinian Red Crescent by phone, desperately pleading for help. From this raw, harrowing material, Kaouther Ben Hania builds a docu-fiction that is both devastating and unforgettable. A group of actors embodies those who answered her call, imagining their words, their reactions, their emotions in response to such a heartrending cry. The film hits like a gut punch not only for its burning relevance, but for its relentlessly sustained tension, drawing the viewer into the claustrophobic space of its central tragedy—a stark emblem of a merciless assault. At Venice, it landed with a rare force, earning a twenty-minute standing ovation. SAWT HIND RAJAB is an unsettling film that forces reflection not only on the weight of its subject but also on how cinema can—and must—represent such events. A necessary vision and an essential one. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

Kaouther Ben Hania: THE BREACH (2004, K), ME, MY SISTER AND THE THING (2006, K), IMAMS GO TO SCHOOL (2010), LE CHALLAT OF TUNIS (2013), BEAUTY AND THE DOGS (2017), ZAÏNEB HATES SNOW (2016), THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN (2020), FOUR DAUGHTERS (2023