Film Screening: The Voice of Hind Rajab (Johannesburg)

Event Details

Venue: Nelson Mandela Foundation, 107 Central Street, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg

Date: Wednesday, 22 April

Time: 19:00 for 19:30

Tickets: R90 per person

Discount price for JDI members: R60 per person

January 29, 2024. Ambulance services in Gaza receive an emergency call from a five-year-old girl trapped in a car under Israeli fire in Gaza, begging for rescue. The adults and other children in the car have been killed. The little girl’s name is Hind Rajab.

The medical team are only eight minutes away from the car. But under heavy fire, they cannot get to her. For hours they keep Hind on the line, while an ambulance struggles to reach her. The tense drama, with arguments among the medical staff about how best to proceed, ends in tragedy: Hind and two paramedics who come to her rescue are also killed.

The Voice of Hind Rajab reconstructs the events of that day using the original audio recordings from the Palestinian Red Crescent office in Ramallah, where the call was taken. While the people on screen are actors, the voices we hear are real.

Hind Rajab’s mother gave permission for the film, saying: “My message is more than just words. It is the pain of a mother who lost her daughter, then found in the outpouring of love for her a message from God. I understood that my mission is to carry the voice of Gaza’s children to the world. The children who live in the heart of war, in the dark, in deprivation of their most basic rights, of their dreams that are torn before they bloom.”

The film’s director Kaouther Ben Hania has been an Oscar nominee three times. The Voice of Hind Rajab was not only nominated for an Oscar, it also won seven awards at the Venice Film Festival where it received the longest audience applause – 23 minutes – that any film has ever received.

This is a film that goes beyond passive viewing and demands a response, which is why ample time will be provided after the movie for audience discussion.