Palestine calls, the Film Festival answers

When the critical screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther ben Hania ended, there was a moment of pause, as happens when emotion gets the better of rationality, critical capacity, and ideological affiliation. Then a long, heartfelt, participatory applause broke out, which gradually grew louder for several minutes. A rare behaviour for critics, very rare indeed. Ovations are usually reserved for official screenings where the audience likes to pay homage to the director and cast present in the auditorium.

"The voice of Hind Rajab", on the other hand, provoked a unique reaction, at least so far for this edition of the Festival (in which shy clapping and no booing were heard, a sign that dissent has gone out of fashion). Collective emotion poured into this film, entrusting art with compassion and asking it to find a solution to the tragedy of the Palestinians in Gaza. For the 90 minutes that the screening lasted, not a yawn, not a comment, not a mobile phone light interrupted the darkness of the room. Everyone thought of the words with which the director had anticipated the film: 'Sometimes, what is unseen is more devastating than what is seen'.

The film is built on the voice of a six-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, trapped in a car hit by the Israeli army, as she tries to escape from Gaza with her cousins and uncles. It is 29 January 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive a phone call from a girl who screams and then abruptly interrupts the conversation. Then a man's voice is heard calling from Germany: it is the uncle of Hind, the only survivor in the car in which the girl who had called for help earlier was travelling. The uncle gives the operators a phone number, which is answered by the girl. Hind explains that everyone beside her is asleep and covered in blood, she is terrified by the proximity of the tanks, she begs them to come and get her. The operators take action to send her an ambulance and never leave her alone. The ambulance is only eight minutes away from her location, but getting it there is very complicated.

The film is built on the real voice track of Hind Rajab, recorded by the Red Crescent on that 29 January. It hinges on those many, many hours in which the rescue workers try to find a solution, but only experience their own helplessness. The protagonists are the team leader (Saja Kilani), an operator (Motaz Malhees), the coordinator (Amer Hlehel) and a psychologist (Clara Khoury). Sometimes their recitations overlap with the voices of the real rescuers. The atmosphere is one of excitement, so that the viewer rushes into the operations room and hopes, against all evidence, that the cinema will work a miracle.

At the press conference, before the questions began, Saja Kilani wanted to send out a message on behalf of the cast: "On behalf of all the actors and the entire team, we ask: haven't we had enough of dehumanisation, destruction, occupation? The film The of Hind Rajab and its voice do not need our defence. This film is not an opinion; it is firmly rooted in reality. The story carries the weight of an entire people. Hind+'s voice is one of the ten thousand children who have been killed in Gaza in these two years alone, and it is the voice of every daughter, every son who has the right to live, to dream and to exist with dignity. All this has been taken away in front of indifferent eyes.... No one can live in peace when children are asking to be saved. We cannot take it any longer. We must demand justice for all humanity, for the future of every child. Enough is enough'.