Joaquin Phoenix Joins The Voice of Hind Rajab in Venice: Filmmakers’ Joint Statement Calls to End “Massacre of the Palestinian People”

According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Joaquin Phoenix, one of the producers of The Voice of Hind Rajab, attended the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Director Kaouther Ben Hania was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation upon entering the press conference. Palestinian-Canadian actress Sajee Kilani read a joint statement on behalf of the filmmakers.
Written and directed by Ben Hania, the film tells the story of a 5-year-old girl left behind in a car who later died during Israeli attacks on Gaza. It incorporates audio recordings of phone calls between Hind Rajab and Red Crescent emergency responders who tried to dispatch an ambulance. The cast includes Sajee Kilani, Clara Khoury, and Moataz Malhis.

In the joint statement read by Kilani in Venice, the filmmakers declared: “On behalf of all the team, we ask: isn’t it enough? The massacres, the starvation, the dehumanization, the destruction, and the ongoing occupation—enough. The Voice of Hind Rajab does not need our defense. It is not an opinion or a fantasy. It is rooted in truth. Hind’s story carries the weight of a nation. Her voice is the voice of tens of thousands of children killed in just the past two years.”
Kilani continued: “The real question is, how did we allow a child to beg for her life? No one can live in peace when even one child must plead for survival. Let Hind’s voice resonate across the world. Let it remind you of the silence that has been built around Gaza.”
Speaking about her motivation for the film, Ben Hania said: “It comes from that intense urge, that anger and helplessness from which this film was born. But I was surrounded by wonderful people, supported by Hind’s mother and family, and by the Red Crescent workers who are the real heroes of this story.”
Other executive producers include Alfonso Cuarón, director of Roma; Jonathan Glazer, Oscar-winning director of The Zone of Interest; and Phoenix’s wife Rooney Mara.

Ben Hania expressed her gratitude for the unexpected support: “I’m very thankful for their backing. The fact that these prominent figures joined the film means so much. We can see that the narrative is shifting worldwide—the narrative that Gaza’s victims are merely collateral damage. This is why cinema, art, and all forms of expression are so important: so that the voices and faces of these people can be heard and seen.”
The filmmaker, who previously earned two Oscar nominations for Four Daughters and The Man Who Sold His Skin, is known for blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Her 2017 film Beauty and the Dogs portrayed, with unsettling precision, the aftermath of a sexual assault in Tunisia.
It was also announced this week that Tunisia has selected The Voice of Hind Rajab as its submission for the 98th Academy Awards.