When Kaouther Ben Hania first heard the voice of Hind Rajab, it was life-changing. In January 2024, trapped in a car in Gaza City and under fire from Israeli forces, the 5-year-old Palestinian girl put in a call to paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
The 70-minute audio of her distress call went viral, as Hind became a symbol for the thousands of children killed in the appalling conflict that escalated in Gaza after the terror attacks of October 7, 2023.
A Palestinian story "should be told by Palestinian actors"
The Tunisian director behind the Oscar-nominated titles The Man Who Sold His Skin and Four Daughters was prepping another film at the time, but she knew she had to switch focus. "There was the urgency to tell this story," she says.
Naturally, Ben Hania spoke to Hind’s mother early in the process. "I told myself, ‘You can’t do this movie if you don't have the approval of Hind's mother.’ It's her child. Losing a child is one of the hardest things, I think, for a parent. So if she didn’t want me to do it, I wouldn’t do it.”
As distressing as it was, Hind’s mother approved the idea. "She told me that she doesn't want her daughter to be forgotten... [and] she told me, ‘I want justice for my daughter. If this movie can help, do it, please.'"
She also cast Palestinian actors as the volunteers. “For me, it’s a Palestinian story and it should be told by Palestinian actors. What is happening in Gaza makes all of us, in a way, Palestinian.”
“This is the meaning of occupation. You put rules, because you are the dominant and those rules are designed to make their life impossible. It made the life of Hind impossible. And even if you follow the rules... you get bombed.”
Ethical quandaries and divisive reactions
“I could feel the emotion,” Ben Hania recalls. “I was hearing the sobbing. So then when they started clapping, it went forever, and it was like, ‘Will they stop?’” It was only that another movie was scheduled to play next that meant the audiences ceased the applause.
Instead, the producers were told they should concentrate on the Israeli side of the story, that over 250 Israelis were kidnapped, and many more killed, in the brutal incursion by Hamas terrorists on October 7.
Others have criticised the use of Hind’s audio, questioning the ethics of using such provocative footage for a movie.
View oEmbed on the source website“Our main purpose was to honour her memory and not to let her be forgotten. Through her, we can feel the pain of other lost children.”
“I've been in juries. I know how it works… I know that a jury is a small number of people,” Ben Hania shrugs, pointing out that the film later winning the Audience Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival, where it received the highest score ever from a public vote, was more meaningful to her.
From a struggle for distribution to Oscar contention and long-term impact
“So every movie is a struggle to be distributed, and Arabic-speaking movies with subtitles are perceived as niche. So you have this and you have the political context of this movie. So, no, I wasn't surprised.”
“It was something very coming from the heart, like we love this movie, we should support it,” says Ben Hania. “And it was beyond my expectation. I never, never thought that the movie would touch them this way. So it's huge.”
“I have no idea. It's very strange. I hope so. I don't know. There are so many movies in this Oscar race. Great movies also. There is the Park Chan-wook movie No Other Choice. There is the Jafar Panahi movie, It Was Just An Accident. Sentimental Value. Colombia has Poeta. So many beautiful, beautiful movies.”
“The narrative was Gazans are collateral damage, killed because they are collateral damage,” comments Ben Hania. “They are faceless. They don't have names. It's almost like they don't exist. And they are accused. All the victims are accused of being terrorists and Hamas. There is this kind of narrative that is infused everywhere. So I did this movie because of this. This little girl had a mother, she had a little brother... they were playing at the beach. They are human beings. They are not collateral damage or numbers.”
“The wound is still bleeding,” she says. “Can you undo what was done? How do you deal with this? Can we talk about change? Still things are very sensitive. I did the movie, but will it bring Hind to life? No.”
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