There has been a steady flow of films and documentaries coming out of Gaza, since Israel’s military escalated relentless attacks after October 7, 2023. Kaouther Ben Hania’s (KBH) The Voice of Hind Rajab has found a special place among them, since it premiered at the 82nd Venice Film festival in the main competition. Enlisting the who’s who of A-list Hollywood as executive producers, including names like Brad Pitt, Rooney Mara, Jonathan Glazer, the film received a 24-minute standing ovation at the festival, also going on to win the Grand Jury Prize. Primarily set inside the war room of the Red Crescent, the entirety of the film takes place as volunteers receive a call from six-year-old, Hind Rajab, trapped in a car with six corpses, with IDF tanks shooting at and around the car. Ben Hania’s film is a grounded, gritty version of events of the fateful day, as it uses actual voice recordings of Rajab, the volunteers, and splices them into her film, along with fusing archives of the ongoing military strikes.The Voice of Hind Rajab is a stirring document of innocence being cornered, helplessly calling out for help – as unspeakable cruelty is unleashed. Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2025 Oscars, Ben Hania’s film is now seeking a release in India. The Tunisian filmmaker spoke to The Wire about the difficult subject matter, what compelled her to make this, the debate on separating Art from politics and why the celebrity effect was necessary to make Hind Rajab’s voice heard all over the world.Edited excerpts:One of the first things that stuck out for me early about the film was how you humanised the Red Crescent folks. Was that important for you from the beginning? That volunteers, who are obviously doing heroic work, shouldn’t come across as flat ‘heroes’?They are humans, so I don’t think I had to humanise them (laughs). The characters are based on real people. And as much as the story is written based on the recording, it’s also based on the testimony of what happened to that day. Whether it was Omar, Mahdi, Rana or Nisreen – if one is faithful to reality, then you don’t need to make an extra effort to humanise them. They’re human, they’re complex, they’re doing a very complicated job in extremely complicated circumstances. So it’s them mainly. The aggravated version of the genocide has been live-streaming on our devices for two and a half years now. Was a part of you worried that well-meaning folks would simply not give the film a chance – considering how everyone is burned out in their own way?I made the film because of social media, it was here that I heard the voice of Hind Rajab for the first time. I wanted to make sure everyone remembered the voice – because when you’re on social media, you’re scrolling. You don’t hear everything fully while scrolling past. But to be seated in a dark movie theatre, and listening to her entire story across one and a half hours – that’s a completely different experience than what we see on our smartphones. For example : the images of the bombarded car and ambulance used in the closing bits of the film, were all over our social media feeds. But it might have appeared between two celebrity posts. The film focuses on the room, where this team is trying to do everything within their power to send an ambulance towards this little girl.There are a lot of things you’re focusing on while making a movie. Among them is how the audience will receive your film. The first time I heard Hind Rajab’s voice, I felt this surge of emotion – mostly anger, sadness and helplessness. I’m using all the tools available within cinema: actors, voice recordings, archives. The aim was to make the audience feel what I’d felt while listening to the recording for the first time.I think one of the film’s most shining qualities is how it’s a paean to archiving. Hind Rajab’s voice is one example of how callously the Israeli forces inflicted violence in the region – defiling almost nearly every acceptable standard of decency. Lots of people are going to come out feeling angry. Is that an emotion you were aiming for with the film?I think anger is a great [takeaway from the film]… I think we’re not angry enough. Anger can be a great feeling for change. We live in a very complicated world, where we need change. We live in a world, where the biggest gun rules the world. It’s the world of Mr. Donald Trump – and this is why Israel is able to do what it’s doing. Since they have the biggest gun. No accountability, no justice, nothing. It’s a scary world – and I think we should be more angry to change things around us. There’s so much conversation about artists and politics at the Berlinale. Is it naive to think of symbolic protests or films bringing about any actual change in the world? No, I don’t think it’s naive at all. I used to think like this (cynically), but this movie gave me faith in the power of cinema. I saw with my own eyes how a film can change someone from within. Films can’t bring about a ceasefire, or deliver justice. But I believe it can have a more long-term conversation. Cinema is a powerful tool, because it goes directly in the mind and heart of those watching it. It can at least change the way we see the world. What I meant to ask is can art bring about policy change? The more you’ve travelled with The Voice of Hind Rajab – are you more hopeful or less hopeful?You’re asking me about the future. But what happened in Berlinale, or Cannes before this, where they said we don’t want a political festival – it’s a very useless attempt to look away from Palestine. For Ukraine, there’s no problem. Zelensky spoke in the opening ceremony at Cannes. Same for Iran. It’s [the directive] just for the voices about Palestine – because Europe is the reason for all this. There’s something very shameful in our history, hence, the relationship is very complicated. By shutting Palestinian voices, they’re doing what they did in the colonial era. This is its own version of neo-colonialism. There were the voices at the Berlinale, who won and spoke up like Abdellah Al-Khatib. We all saw how useless it was to try and shut the voices around Gaza. I don’t know if you’re aware, but we’re facing censorship in India with respect to films emerging from Gaza. Are you hopeful for the film getting a wide release here, what’s your plan if centres like India don’t allow you to release the film widely?Till now, the Indian distributor still hasn’t got any approval – which is very concerning. We don’t know what is happening. We have an Indian distributor, and it’s released all over the world, but to the best of my knowledge till now, we haven’t heard anything around India yet. I don’t fully know what’s happening in India, but it’s very sad. What we’ve noticed across Europe is how the far-right is coming to power in most countries, and they all have a deep fascination with Israel. This world, where all the far-right powers are allying with each other, is not the one I want to live in. It’s a scary, scary world.Do you have any alternate plans in motion? For places like India?For the moment, we don’t have any alternative plans. We don’t when the film might get a release. Maybe when we have more clarity, I would love the opportunity to come to India, and watch the film with the Indian audience. What’s the benefit of having A-list Hollywood lending their names to your film. Is there a downside?The Executive Producers don’t have any financial or creative input for the film, but once we finished editing – we thought this is the kind of film that can very easily be boxed into a niche. It’s a film with subtitles, it doesn’t have stars, it’s a very, very tragic story – so it can very easily be invisible. And the whole point of making this film was to make this girl visible. To take her voice to those who were not interested about what was happening. We reached out to a bunch of celebrities, hoping at least one would be willing to lend their name to our film. Fortunately, all of them watched the film immediately, and wanted to support it. It’s still growing, a month back we had Spike Lee and Michael Moore joining the list of EPs. I don’t know about the negative impact. But once the news got out before Venice, people started talking about our film, which is the celebrity effect you know? Everyone was curious about what this film was, to which people like Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer and Alfonso Cuaron had lent their names to. It’s not a film you would watch to unwind in the evening, but it’s an important movie. Once you watch the film, you might recommend it to others – but I think the names of celebrities fill this gap of convincing people to give the film a chance.