Adam Patla
In the midst of the Oscar campaign for her documentary Four Daughters and preparing for her next feature, writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania came across the audio of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old trapped in a car under Israeli fire, begging Red Crescent employees to rescue her. After hearing the audio, Ben Hania reached out to Red Crescent for the full seventy minute audio; she knew then she had to change her plans and tell this story.
The Voice of Hind Rajab takes place entirely at the Red Crescent offices where a group of call center employees try and coordinate the rescue of Hind. Using the actual audio from the phone call, Ben Hania confronts the audience with the heavy reality of what is happening in Gaza. Tensions rise as the call center navigates the protocol put in place by the Israeli government that feels purposefully inhibitive to their success while juggling the weight of keeping their own emergency responders alive.
After a rapturous debut at the Venice Film Festival, The Voice of Hind Rajab went on to be nominated for Best International Feature at the upcoming Academy Awards, beating out entries backed by bigger studios like Neon and MUBI.
In our conversation, Ben Hania discusses prioritizing the emotional impact of the story, as well as why cinema is an important vehicle for political discussion. We also discussed her various filmmaking techniques and how those aided her overall vision for the story.
Listen to our full conversation Kaouther Ben Hania, the writer and director of The Voice of Hind Rajab below.
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