---
title: "The Voice of Hind Rajab"
year: 2025
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-voice-of-hind-rajab"
fi1m_id: "the-voice-of-hind-rajab"
imdb_id: "tt36943034"
tmdb_id: 1480382
wikidata_id: "Q135038882"
fi1m_score: 81
critics_score: 83
critics_reviews: 11
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:45.417913+00:00"
region: "CA"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025)

Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania · 1h 29m · CHVRS 14A · Drama, History

## Identity

The Voice of Hind Rajab

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-voice-of-hind-rajab
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-voice-of-hind-rajab
- **IMDb ID:** tt36943034
- **TMDB ID:** 1480382
- **Wikidata ID:** Q135038882
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36943034/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1480382, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q135038882

**Fi1m score: 81** · Critics 83 from 11 reviews

*In a sentence:* Everyone on screen is acting except the child, who is only a voice, and she is the one we believe

> The real voice of a child trapped in a car in Gaza runs through Kaouther Ben Hania’s drama. See it, though its first half hour is as hard to watch as anything we have seen, and the actors are less sure than she is.

## Synopsis

Gaza. A call reaches the Red Crescent’s dispatch office: a young girl is alone and alive in a car that has been fired on. Kaouther Ben Hania’s film stays with the people who take that call. Rana (Saja Kilani) keeps the child talking. Omar (Motaz Malhees) wants an ambulance sent now. Mahdi (Amer Hlehel), who runs the office, has to get clearance for one to move, and Nisreen (Clara Khoury) tries to hold the others together. The girl on the line is not played by an actor. Her voice is the real recording of Hind Rajab, and the scenes are built around it. The film runs 89 minutes and carries a 15 certificate.

## Review

A Red Crescent dispatch office in Gaza took a call from a car. A young girl called Hind Rajab was alive inside it. The operators kept her on the line while they tried to get an ambulance to her, and the calls were recorded. Kaouther Ben Hania’s film plays those recordings into a reconstruction of that office, with actors as the people who spoke to her. The girl’s voice is real. The office is a set.

The first half hour is the film. Phones ring, operators pick up, and a small voice asks whether anyone is coming. Rana (Saja Kilani) is given the job of keeping her talking, and Kilani plays it as work: keep your own voice level, ask about the car, ask about school, do not let the silence grow. We were horrified, and nothing on screen did it. It was the sound of the child breathing between sentences while grown adults looked at a map and waited. Juan Sarmiento G. keeps the camera inside the office, close on faces and handsets, and never cuts to Gaza. The car is only a voice and a point on a screen.

Around Rana the film builds a small argument about what can be done. Omar (Motaz Malhees) wants the ambulance sent whatever the risk. Mahdi (Amer Hlehel), the man in charge, has to secure clearance for it to travel through a war zone and spends most of the film on hold. Nisreen (Clara Khoury) looks after the colleagues who are coming apart. Bessem Marzouk’s production design gives them an ordinary open-plan office of desks and screens, and the ordinariness is the point: this is a workplace, and the work today is a dying child. Malhees is the strongest of the four because he is allowed to be angry and Ben Hania lets the anger stand without comment.

What does not work is the thriller. Ben Hania, editing with Maxime Mathis and Qutaiba Barhamji, cuts the middle stretch like a countdown, with raised voices and Amine Bouhafa’s strings coming in under the confrontations. The recording does not need any of it. Every time the music rose under the actors we felt the film reaching for something the telephone had already given us, and there is at least one shouting match across the office that plays like a hospital serial. Most critics have forgiven this. We nearly do. The alternative, 89 minutes of a child’s voice over an empty office, would be unwatchable, and Ben Hania has to give us somewhere to put our eyes.

There is also the question of whether the voice should be in a drama at all. A dead child is the soundtrack to scenes in which actors weep, and several critics have asked where witness ends and spectacle begins. We think the charge is fair and that the film survives it. Ben Hania hides nothing about what she is doing; the tagline says the voices on the phone are real, and the last minutes leave the fiction behind in a way we will not describe. She wants this recording heard by people who would otherwise never hear it. That is a defensible reason.

Ben Hania has worked this ground before. *Four Daughters* (2023) put real women alongside actors playing their missing relatives, and *Beauty and the Dogs* (2017) followed a young woman through one night of being passed from desk to desk. This is her plainest film and her most confined, and she is better at the confinement than at the drama. The shots that hold on Kilani’s face while the line goes quiet are worth more than any scene in which the script tells us what everyone feels.

It is a 15 certificate and 89 minutes long, and it feels longer, which for once is a compliment. Watch it without a phone in reach. You will not want to hear one ring for a while.

*Fi1m score 81, published 9 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Voice of Hind Rajab worth watching?**

*The Voice of Hind Rajab* is worth watching, and we scored it 81. Kaouther Ben Hania plays the real recorded calls of a child trapped in a car in Gaza into a reconstructed Red Crescent dispatch office, and the first half hour is as hard to sit through as anything we have seen. The actors and the thriller cutting around the recording are less sure than the voice itself.

**How long is The Voice of Hind Rajab, and what is it rated?**

*The Voice of Hind Rajab* runs 1h 29m and is rated 14A by the CHVRS in Canada. It is a drama and history film.

**Where can I watch The Voice of Hind Rajab in Canada?**

*The Voice of Hind Rajab* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from CA$6.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Voice of Hind Rajab, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Voice of Hind Rajab* carries a UK 15 certificate and is not suitable for children. There is almost no violence on screen; the camera never leaves the office, and the horror is entirely in the sound of a real child breathing between sentences while adults wait on a map. It is distressing rather than frightening, and the squeamish should know the girl is not an actor.

**How does The Voice of Hind Rajab compare to Locke?**

*The Voice of Hind Rajab* and [*Locke*](https://film.one/film/locke) both confine themselves to people holding a crisis together by telephone, but the resemblance ends there. *Locke* is a fiction with Tom Hardy alone in a car, tense and occasionally too neatly arranged; Ben Hania's film is built around a real recording, and the real voice matters more than any performance. *Locke* is the better-made drama, and this is the one that stays with you.

**What should I watch after The Voice of Hind Rajab?**

After *The Voice of Hind Rajab*, try [*Locke*](https://film.one/film/locke) (2013, Fi1m 82): Tom Hardy alone in a car on the motorway, holding his life together by phone. Then [*United 93*](https://film.one/film/united-93) (2006, Fi1m 88): Real events rebuilt in near real time, mostly from control rooms full of people who cannot help.

### Reviews we read (18)

- **Time Out**, Whelan Barzey (5/5): This is a stunning, heartbreaking document of the Palestinian plight and an act of intervention. It singles out the daring use of the real distress-call recordings as the spine of the film, expanded with authentic performances from the Palestinian cast. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review-2026)
- **Empire**, John Nugent (95/100, inferred): The film is a devastatingly real docudrama blending actual audio with dramatisation of the Red Crescent's failed rescue attempt. It singles out the minimalist focus on the call centre operators and the real voice of Hind as making it one of the most powerful films possible. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-voice-of-hind-rajab/)
- **Radio Times**, James Mottram (4/5): This is a harrowing and often difficult-to-watch true-life docudrama that pulls together an urgent anti-war work. It singles out Ben Hania's sensitive handling of the real audio and the material right to the end, even when showing footage of the actual car. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-o5s7nr/the-voice-of-hind-rajab/)
- **The New York Times**, Ben Kenigsberg (80/100, inferred): The film is both powerfully direct and purposefully removed in its dramatization of the rescue efforts for the trapped girl. It evokes the events through the call center workers' frantic coordination without visualizing the horror from the child's perspective. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/movies/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review.html)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Robert Abele (75/100, inferred): The docudrama is a powerfully blunt instrument of empathy that prioritizes the sound of an innocent victim amid roiling pain. It fuses docudrama tools with the real audio recording but sometimes favors close-up melodramatics over deeper analysis. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-12-18/voice-of-hind-rajab-review-docu-fiction-hybrid-gaza-kaouther-ben-hania)
- **Variety**, Guy Lodge (60/100, inferred): The hybrid film is unavoidably devastating due to the real audio but risks trivializing its documentary core with melodramatic and thriller elements. It confronts audiences with the girl's voice in a single-location dramatization of the call center but raises questions about ethics and execution. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review-1236505658/)
- **Evening Standard**, Nick Howells: Ben Hania’s dramatised account of Hind Rajab’s death is discomfiting and emotionally devastating, an utterly essential piece of film-making. It singles out the harrowing use of the real audio recordings alongside the actors portraying the call centre workers and the bureaucratic nightmare they face. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-film-review-gaza-london-film-festival-b1251965.html)
- **Financial Times**: The critic describes the film as a wrenching drama and eulogy-protest built around the real emergency calls. It notes the precise dramatization of events in the call center and the sense of impossible urgency. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/91717b76-b582-41d9-b859-3e114b5e3455)
- **Screen Daily**: The wrenching and distressing dramatisation brings devastating power through its use of the actual recordings while raising ethical questions about consent. It singles out the single-location thriller device that plays out the story in the faces of the volunteers confronting bureaucracy. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review-kaouther-ben-hania-revisits-2024-death-of-a-six-year-old-in-gaza/5208509.article)
- **Sight and Sound**: The film is undeniably powerful in its depiction of the events but the choice to embed the real voice of the dead child in a genre-inflected narrative blurs the line between resistance and spectacle. It singles out the first 20 minutes as emotionally devastating thanks to the child's voice while critiquing its later overuse and the uneven performances. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/voice-hind-rajab-emotionally-devastating-film-that-blurs-boundary-between-resistance-spectacle)
- **The Guardian**: The critic praises the film's audacious use of real audio recordings of the girl's desperate calls alongside dramatized scenes of emergency responders. It singles out the provocative docufiction approach for its fierce, urgent impact at the Venice festival. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/04/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review-provocative-docufiction-is-fierce-urgent-and-heart-shattering)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Sheri Linden: The critic describes the film as a gripping, intensely involving dramatization of the real events, built around actual emergency calls that create heart-wrenching urgency in a single-location thriller format. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review-kaouther-ben-hania-gripping-drama-1236344683/)
- **The Times**: The review calls the film an impassioned, devastating drama centered on the girl's final hours and the frantic efforts of dispatchers. It highlights the shattering effect of the real phone tapes as the emotional core. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review-56dzw0zx3)
- **Paste**, Natalia Keogan (A-): The docudrama powerfully reiterates the real events of Hind Rajab's final moments through dramatized scenes of Red Crescent workers on the phone with the terrified child. It singles out the visceral impact of blending reenactment with the actual audio recordings for its crushing effect. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/kaouther-ben-hania/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review)
- **The Playlist**, Marshall Shaffer (A-): The review lauds the film's shattering impact and effective use of archival audio blended with dramatization to convey the horror and humanity of the events, noting its thriller-like structure and bold artistic choices. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review-this-ripped-from-the-headlines-drama-about-gaza-will-rip-your-heart-out-venice-20250904/)
- **Collider**, Emma Kiely (80/100, inferred): The film is a devastating portrait of helplessness and bureaucracy as Red Crescent workers try to rescue the girl using real phone recordings. It singles out the effective blending of drama and documentary footage, along with strong performances, while noting some melodramatic moments. [Read](https://collider.com/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-review-palestine/)
- **Eye for Film**, Jennie Kermode (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's sensitive handling of the story through emergency call handlers, blending reality and fiction effectively, and highlights how it gives prominence to Hind's voice amid the tragedy. It notes the urgent and impactful nature of the film. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-2025-film-review-by-jennie-kermode)
- **The Skinny**, Rhys Handley (★★★★): The hybrid docudrama is powerful and devastating. It uses the real audio recording of Hind Rajab to dramatise her failed rescue in near-real time. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/the-voice-of-hind-rajab)

## Details

- **Director:** Kaouther Ben Hania
- **Director:** Kaouther Ben Hania
- **Writer:** Kaouther Ben Hania
- **Cinematography:** Juan Sarmiento G.
- **Editor:** Kaouther Ben Hania, Maxime Mathis, Qutaiba Barhamji
- **Music:** Amine Bouhafa
- **Production design:** Bessem Marzouk
- **Producer:** Odessa Rae, James Wilson, Nadim Cheikhrouha
- **Cast:** Hind Rajab as Self (Voice - Archive Footage); Motaz Malhees as Omar A. Alqam; Saja Kilani as Rana Hassan Faqih; Amer Hlehel as Mahdi M. Aljamal; Clara Khoury as Nisreen Jeries Qawas; Nesbat Serhan as Leila; Ramy Brahem as Mahdi's Assistant
- **Runtime:** 1h 29m
- **Certificate (CHVRS):** 14A
- **Release (Canada):** 23 January 2026
- **Genres:** Drama, History
- **Box office:** $5 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkeKrG0YONQ

## Where to watch in Canada

- Amazon Prime Video: rent CA$6.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy CA$12.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CL, CO, DE, DK, EC, FI, FR, GB, IT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2026: Best International Feature Film (nominated)
- Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival 2025: Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Guilty* (2018): A Danish emergency dispatcher, one room, one night, and a caller he cannot reach.
- *Locke* (2013), Fi1m 82: Tom Hardy alone in a car on the motorway, holding his life together by phone. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/locke.md)
- *United 93* (2006), Fi1m 88: Real events rebuilt in near real time, mostly from control rooms full of people who cannot help. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/united-93.md)
- *5 Broken Cameras* (2011): A Palestinian farmer films his village over five years; each camera is destroyed in turn.
- *Four Daughters* (2023): Ben Hania’s earlier mix of real women and actors, looser and stranger than this one.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-voice-of-hind-rajab