Prateek Tanmay
4 min readUpdated: Jun 19, 2026 09:25 AM IST
The Voice of Hind Rajab movie review: Some films come carrying so much weight that they become hard to bear. Some films become testaments to their time. The Voice of Hind Rajab is one that does both: it lets us in on the agony of a small child left alone in the back of a car, her family members murdered, calling for help; it also asks us to bear witness.
Director Kaouther Ben Hania first heard the clip in which a five-year-old girl is heard sobbing, saying she is afraid of the dark, asking for help. The voice belonged to Hind Rajab who was travelling with her aunts, uncles and cousin in the Gaza strip when the car was strafed by Israeli forces. Everyone in the car is dead, the cousin is grievously injured: we learn that the latter dies too, leaving the terrified Hind hiding as best as she could behind the backseat.
When the volunteers of the Palestine Red Crescent Society realise the gravity of her situation–tanks are closing in on her even as she cries– their first reaction is the instant humanitarian one: to order an ambulance to go into the strip to rescue her. They are halted in their tracks by their superior, a man who goes by the book, who demands that the requisite multiple permissions are sought, and the journey cleared on all fronts, before the rescue operation can be launched.
The Voice of Hind Rajab movie trailer:
In her tense reconstruction of those last hours of Hind Rajab, Ben Hania uses the actual voice of the little girl, with actors playing the Palestinian volunteers. Each one, especially the trio which does the heavy lifting, Omar (Motaaz Malheez) who is the first responder, and Rana (Saja Kilani) who offers constant encouragement and support even as they rage against the inaction of their supervisor, Mahdi (Amer Hlehel), does their job with empathy, and grace. You can feel their growing helplessness as precious time is wasted, and the despair when they learn that she is no more is devastating, as much to them, as it is to us, watching in the theatre.
The usage of the real voice, through recordings that flicker on the screen, is a decision that can leave you conflicted, in the way docu-fiction often can. “Please come, I am so scared,” Hind Rajab cries out. We hope, heart in mouth, against hope.
The film lasts 89 minutes. What it leaves us with is the anger and guilt of a lifetime, as we experience each minute being lost in the face of bureaucratic apathy and growing danger. Hind doesn’t survive, and her not being in the world makes it, like so many lives lost to war, a lesser place. It is her voice which has survived, a potent anti-war statement, if ever there was one.
The film is out in India on limited release. Do not miss it.
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The Voice of Hind Rajab movie cast: Motaaz Malheez, Saja Kilani, Amer Hlehel
The Voice of Hind Rajab movie director: Kaouther Ben Hania
The Voice of Hind Rajab movie star rating: 4 stars
