It’s not often you sit in a cinema with a packed audience in stunned silence during the end credits (unless there is some sequence you are expecting). Still, it happened with The Voice of Hind Rajab, a powerful, gut-wrenching drama based on actual events during the Israeli-Gaza war, that doesn’t need to be seen; it almost demands to be seen. It is one of he most heartbreaking and harrowing films you will see in a very long time.

A call centre run by Red Crescent volunteers receives an emergency call after a car seems to be caught up in what appears to be crossfire. At the end of the phone is six-year-old Hind Rajab, a girl alone and afraid as the car is being circled by an Israeli tank. The volunteers try to keep her calm while they fight against red tape to get someone to rescue her. As each moment passes, her chances of survival grow slimmer.

Using the actual recordings of the little girl as she speaks to the volunteers, director Kaouther Ben Hania manages, with almost a single set, to create a film that is brimming with tension while forcing us to listen to the pleas of a little girl, obviously scared, parallel to the powerless position of the volunteers who are desperate to get someone out there to save her.

What makes this even more impressive is that the director interposes the voices of the actual volunteers, so the audience can hear just how calming and reassuring they had to be to make the trapped girl feel there is hope. In one scene, a video of the actual moments when the volunteers are on the phone is shown, with the actors blurred in the background, as if they are the ones being filmed.

The film shows how ordinary people will go to any lengths to do extraordinary things. It is a film about hope, about the nature of going above and beyond. Still, it’s a deeply critical examination of a pointless, futile war, of how this isn’t about enemies but about one little girl caught up in a world of horror and hatred, and of just how callous the whole situation is. You never see any violence, but you can hear the pain and despair that these people are facing.

There have been accusations aimed at the film for being propaganda for those who are against the Israeli army, and maybe this is the case. Yet fundamentally, if you remove the setting, this isn’t about who did what to whom, but a story of the wrongs of war. Innocence is destroyed in a single moment, and regardless of your political views, it just makes you more and more frustrated that, as human beings, we can’t let bygones be bygones and live in peace. It may be more slanted to the Palestinians, but it just happens to be a call from that area.

As a piece of cinema, it works on every level. There may be the odd dramatic licence being used, but the call is genuine, and the reactions to it are as real as they can be. It is gripping, upsetting and deeply emotional. It will probably have you crying throughout, but you must watch this film to understand that war is totally futile and the only people who are getting hurt are the innocent ones. Devastating.

5 out of 5

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Starring: Motaz Malhees, Saja Kilani, Amer Hiehel, Clara Khoury, Nesbat Serhan

Written by: Kaouther Ben Hania

Running Time: 89 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 16th January 2026