Tunisian film highlights the human cost of warmongering Israel

The Voice of Hind Rajab, a compelling Tunisian film about the human cost of military tactics used by the warmongering state of Israel, will screen at the Joburg Film Festival this Sunday. The film premieres in South Africa at a moment when the United States and Israel are waging a bombing campaign against Iran that has already killed more than 1 300 people, according to the Iranian Red Crescent, while Unicef says that more than 180 children are among the dead. Against this grim backdrop, the arrival of an Oscar-nominated film offering an intimate and unflinching view of the impact of Israel’s military violence feels particularly timely.

Screening for the first time in South Africa as part of the Joburg Film Festival programme,The Voice of Hind Rajabforces audiences to confront the human consequences of war through one devastating story. Directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, the film reconstructs the real-life events surrounding Red Crescent volunteers responding to an emergency call in Gaza. Ben Hania builds the film around the operations room where volunteers attempt to coordinate a rescue.

The narrative moves between actors portraying the call-centre responders and real cellphone footage of the actual volunteers who took part in the operation. The result is a striking hybrid of documentary and dramatisation. In less capable hands such an approach might have felt disjointed, but Ben Hania weaves these elements together into a narrative that remains gripping throughout, even when it becomes almost unbearably difficult to watch.

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The events depicted in the 90-minute film unfolded on 29 January 2024, making this less a historical reconstruction than a reflection of a crisis that is still ongoing. Ben Hania’s narrative structure gives the film an immediacy that makes it feel less like a record of the past and more like a dispatch from the present. That sense of urgency is reinforced by the reality that Israel’s campaign against Palestinians continues even as its military operations expand elsewhere in the region.

At the centre of the story is six-year-old Hind Rajab. She is trapped in a car with her aunt, uncle and four cousins when she manages to place an emergency call to the Red Crescent. As the volunteers speak to her, it becomes clear that everyone else in the vehicle has already been killed by Israeli Defence Forces gunfire.

The little girl hides inside the car, terrified and alone, surrounded by the bodies of her family members. Inside the call centre, several volunteers become entangled in the unfolding crisis. Omar (Motaz Malhees) is the first responder who speaks directly with Hind.

Mahdi (Amer Hlehel) carries the impossible burden of coordinating a rescue mission without risking the lives of additional responders. Rana (Saja Kilani), Omar’s supervisor, becomes increasingly involved as the situation escalates, while counsellor Nisreen (Clara Khoury) is drawn into the emotional toll of the call. What makes the film particularly remarkable is Ben Hania’s decision to use the real audio recordings of Hind Rajab’s emergency calls as part of the narrative. From the moment her voice is heard, the film transforms into a heart-stopping race against time.

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