Hollywood heavyweights, including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, and Rooney Mara, have come on board Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza-set drama The Voice of Hind Rajab, as executive producers, boosting the film’s profile ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
Also joining the film as executive producers are Dede Garner and Jeremy Kleiner of Pitt’s production outfit Plan B, The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer, and Roma filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron. Several high-profile companies, including Britain’s Film4 and Saudi Arabian state-owned group MBC Studio, have also backed The Voice of Hind Rajab.
The film will premiere in Venice on Sept. 3 before heading to the Toronto International Film Festival for its North American premiere.
The drama reconstructs the events surrounding the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab in January 2024. Rajab, traveling by car with her four cousins and her aunt and uncle, came under fire from the Israeli military as they tried to flee Gaza City. Ben Hania’s film is based on the voice recordings between Hind Rajab and the Red Crescent volunteers who tried to keep her on the line, doing everything they can to get an ambulance to her.
Israel claimed it did not have troops in the area where Hind and her family were killed but investigations using satellite imagery, carried out independently by The Washington Post and Sky News have concluded that Israeli tanks were present at the time. London-based research group Forensic Architecture published a detailed investigation in conjunction with Al Jazeera that mapped 335 bullet holes in the car’s exterior.
The Voice of Hind Rajab is Ben Hania’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated Four Daughters, another drama that combines documentary with fictional methods.Her previous film The Man Who Sold His Skin was also a best international nominee.
The Voice of Hind Rajab was lead produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha under his Mime Films and Tanit Films banner, together with Odessa Rae at New York-based RaeFilm Studios and James Wilson at London-based Jw Films Production. Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees Clara Khoury and Amer Hlehel star.
Ahead of its Venice premiere, The Party Film Sales, which are handling international sales for the movie, closed distribution deals across much of Europe. CAA Media Finance represents the film for North America.
The killing of Hind Rajab and her family took place some three months into Israel’s ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror attacks, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in the taking of 251 hostages. At least 61,000 people living in the Gaza Strip have died in Israel’s subsequent military campaign, officially aimed at wiping out Hamas and recovering the hostages.
On Monday, Israeli forces bombed the main hospital in southern Gaza and then struck the same spot shortly afterwards, killing at least 20 people, including rescuers, health workers, and at least five journalists, sparking international condemnation.
The ongoing war and spiraling humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip are set to take center stage at the Venice film festival kicks off today. Hundreds of local political and grassroots groups have announced plans to join a march protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, on the main Santa Maria Elisabetta avenue on the Lido on August 30.
Hundreds of Italian and international artists, including Ken Loach, Italian actor Toni Servillo, French directors Céline Sciamma and Audrey Diwan, and Palestinian directorial duo Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser, signed an open letter calling on the Venice film festival to condemn what they describe as genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.