VENICE: A gut-wrenching new film about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year was given a record breaking 23-minute standing ovation after its premiere at the star-studded Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab”, a docu-drama about real events from January 2024, left much of the audience and many journalists sobbing as it screened for the first time.
Franco-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania and her cast, all dressed in black, were also in tears as they soaked in applause, cheers and shouts of “Free Palestine! at the 1,032-seat main festival cinema.
“We see that the narrative all around world is that those dying in Gaza are collateral damage, in the media,” Ben Hania told journalists ahead of the premiere.
“And I think this is so dehumanising, and that's why cinema, art and every kind of expression is very important to give those people a voice and face.”
Her film tells the story of Hind Rajab Hamada who was fleeing the Israeli military in Gaza City with six relatives last year when their car came under fire.
The sole survivor, her desperate calls with the Red Crescent rescue service -- which were recorded and released -- brief caused international outrage.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” has plenty of famous names attached as executive producers -- from actors Joaquin Phoenix, who attended the premiere, and Brad Pitt to Oscar-winning directors Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”) and Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma”).
“I'm very happy, and I never in my life thought that can be possible,” Ben Hania said of her A-list backers.
Its premiere came on the same day as a senior Israeli military official said one million Palestinians could be displaced by a new offensive around Gaza City.
