War in Gaza: 'I call for outrage. Hind's voice must not make one feel comfortable'

The film is not at all blackmail because no one, fortunately, can put themselves in the child's shoes. There is blackmail when there are situations on the big screen that the viewer abstractly might experience, pains he might suffer or memories that surface of them. In The Voice of Hind Rajad there is none of this. The child is already dead and we know it. Thanks to the film we understand the bureaucracy of the relief system, the bad faith, we realise our powerlessness and the urgency to curb genocide.

This writer has never experienced such tension at a press screening, and, at the end, such a sense of suspense that it chilled the room, which was then dissolved by a long, distraught and liberating applause.

"Il Sole 24 Ore" meets director Kaouther Ben Hania in the Lido space of I Wonder Pictures, the production company that meritoriously distributes this urgent and important film in Italy. The director wears a long necklace of green, white and black beads, her expression happy but combative, attentive. She is proud, like her film, enthusiastic, but also guarded.

"Many people are trying to act to prevent the genocide, I am thinking of the Global sumud flotilla - the fleet of twenty-three boats with activists and politicians like Greta Thunberg on board that aims to show solidarity with the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip - but they feel powerless. So, for me, it was really important to put the real voice of Hind Rajad at the centre of the story. Initially I thought of having a little actress play her, I met I don't know how many little girls and asked them to repeat what Hind was saying. Then I thought: why? For me it was bad taste. We have her real voice available on the Internet, did I have to change it to make the audience comfortable?"

 "So I contacted the Red Crescent, who had attempted to provide relief to Hind. We discussed at length what had happened that day, the Kafkaesque protocol operators are obliged to follow, the impossible rules to follow and, above all, the fact that following them does not guarantee the result. This to me is what being busy means: having rules that make your life impossible. Since cinema is about shots, about vision, it was important for me to find images that made the absurdity of the protocol understandable to the audience. The cameramen had to make diagrams to explain it to me and so I came up with the idea of reproducing it in the film, using a drawing".

The film moved much of the Lido, but also divided it. Some speak of the 'immorality' of the operation. Some retort that a film on 7 October could be made in the same way. "Everyone has the right to make the film they want to make, to choose. Cinema is about choosing a story to bring to the big screen, so the fact that The Voice of Hind Rajab exists does not prevent other stories from being told. We need stories'.

Others argue that The Voice of Hind Rajab is an overly emotional film. "And what is cinema supposed to do? Of course, cinema arouses emotions and tries to get you on its side. I think we all love cinema. What is happening in Gaza should not excite emotions, it should provoke outrage and pain'.

The recording, the images of the girl were on social media and were only partly brought into the film. "For me it was all in the recording. The images are all over social media and nobody turned around. So I chose a mundane place like an open space. Then we also included sound and real archive footage, when the car and the bodies of the little girl and the two rescuers were recovered".

The film won the backing of Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara - who were on the Lido on Wednesday on the red carpet to support the film along with the cast -, Brad Pitt, Alfonso Cuarón and The Zone of Interests director Jonathan Glazer, who became executive producers. This endorsement could be a good springboard for the Oscars, as the Academy showed great courage by awarding No Other Land, which documented the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip, in early 2025.

"When we finished the film, one of the producers, James Wilson (together with Nadim Cheikhrouha and Odessa Rae n.d.r.), asked me to show the film to Jonathan Glazer. I immediately said yes and Jonathan, who loved the film immediately, asked if he could support it. The same happened with Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Alfonso Cuarón and Rooney Mara. This is a huge gesture for me, because it is crucial to have a spotlight on the film. Especially Brad Pitt can bring a different audience than the one that would spontaneously come to see the film, which is spoken in Arabic, with that subject matter'.

Any reaction from Gaza? 'Yes', replies Kaouther Ben Hania, genuinely happy. 'I received a very moving letter from a poet from Gaza who commented gratefully on what is happening in Venice. But he could not see the film. And of course I heard from Hind's mother, we keep in touch every day'.

And now let us hope that The Voice of Hind Rajab wins the Lion and the Festival will have done its job of disrupting and shaking up society through art.