A Film About 6-Year-Old Palestinian Girl Hind Rajab Killed By Israel Got A Record Standing Ovation At Venice
The audience stood up for 23 minutes and 50 seconds, applauding, chanting "Free Palestine" and waving Palestine flags.
A film based on the true story of Israeli forces’ killing of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in Gaza received the longest standing ovation in Venice Film Festival's history, lasting nearly 24 minutes and filling the cinema with applause and "Free Palestine" chants.
Directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, “The Voice of Hind Rajab” reenacts the final hours of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed when Israeli forces attacked her family’s car and shot at it 355 times.
Hind and her extended family had been fleeing Gaza on Jan. 20, when Israeli forces started shooting at their car.
Her cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadeh, the only survivor in the car with Hind at the time, then called the Palestinian Red Crescent for help, saying “They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me,” before gunshots could be heard and Layan started screaming.
In the final moments that Layan’s voice is heard, a total of 64 gunshots can be heard, fired in just six seconds, according to an analysis of the recording by Earshot.
The line then went silent before Hind could be heard asking Red Crescent workers to get her because she was scared.
For three hours, Hind remained on the call, trapped in the car among the bodies of her dead relatives, as Israeli forces continued to shoot around her.
After the Red Crescent pinpointed her location, they sent an ambulance to rescue her, but then lost contact with the ambulance crew.
Hind’s body was found 12 days later Feb. 10, 2024, decomposing in the car with her relatives’ bodies, with the ambulance crew’s bodies also found just meters away from the car.
Investigations had later found that Israeli forces had shot at Hind’s family car a total of 355 bullets, knowing there were children inside.
The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, Sept. 3, using a recording of Hind’s real voice from her call to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The audience stood up for 23 minutes and 50 seconds, applauding, chanting "Free Palestine" and waving Palestine flags.
Ben Hania said Hind’s voice was “the voice of Gaza asking for help.”
Actor Saja Kilani told reporters the story was meant to make people ask why a child had to beg the world for life. Hind’s mother said she hoped the film would push leaders to end the war.
The film’s executive producers include Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón and Jonathan Glazer.
It is Tunisia’s official entry for the Academy Awards and is now considered one of the strongest competitors for Venice’s Golden Lion prize, which will be awarded on Sept. 6.
Israel has now killed more than 64,231 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and Gaza City is officially in a man-made famine created by Israel.
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Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
