The Voice of Hind Rajab, a docudrama written and directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, has finally obtained a distributor in the US. The film focuses on the Palestinian Red Crescent response to the desperate cellphone calls of Hind, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl, trapped by Israeli fire in Gaza in January 2024. The girl, along with six members of her family and two Red Crescent paramedics, eventually died in a hail of lethal IDF fire.

Ben Hania’s film will open in December at New York’s Film Forum and the Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles before expanding nationwide. 

Why is this significant? Like No Other Land–the documentary about violent oppression of the Palestinians on the West Bank–before it, The Voice of Hind Rajab had until recently been the target of pro-Zionist political censorship in the US and in Hollywood’s upper echelons in particular. This is the only explanation for the fact that no distributor had come forward until this week.

The film has been screened at dozens of film festivals and other events worldwide and has been greeted with widespread acclaim. According to Deadline, at the Venice Film Festival in September, Ben Hania’s drama “received what might be a film festival record 23-minute and 50-second ovation after its world premiere.”

Variety noted Tuesday

Winner of the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival … “The Voice of Hind Rajab” has been hailed as one of 2025’s most powerful and timely works. It also won the Audience Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival, setting a new record for the festival’s highest score, in addition to honors at the Middleburg Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival. The film has screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London and AFI Fest.

The previous failure of the film to gain a distributor had prompted Deadline to post an article October 10, “Acclaimed Gaza Drama ‘The Voice Of Hind Rajab’ Remains Without A U.S. Distributor: Why?” It commented:

International buyers have flocked to it [The Voice of Hind Rajab]. Italian distributor I Wonder Pictures launched the film locally two weeks ago to a fourth-place opening and $500,000 from 400 screens, a strong debut for a foreign-language film. It has now crossed $1M ...
We spoke to a dozen U.S. and international distributors, financiers and producers to get their take. None wanted to speak on the record.
One leading U.S. buyer, who expressed strong interest in the film, claimed: “Buyers are passing out of fear and/or they disagree with the film’s politics.”

The October 10 piece also asserted that “America”–in reality, its film and political world–had shifted to the right:

Former Lionsgate film chief Patrick Wachsberger, speaking on a recent Deadline-moderated film distribution panel at the Zurich Summit, told the audience that he doubted whether in this political climate even a movie such as [Michael Moore’s] Bowling For Columbine could get a theatrical release. …
One studio boss we spoke with privately in recent weeks admitted to being “terrified” to do or say anything that might incur Trump’s wrath. …
Doing side deals with the President is now seen as a necessary evil in order to focus on “the things that matter.” These seemingly include greasing the wheels for other deals with his administration and installing executives favorable to the President and his culture wars agenda.

The subject matter of The Voice of Hind Rajab is a horrifying episode in Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza. The young girl was trapped in a car after Israel tank fire killed her relatives. She was apparently the last person left alive in the vehicle. As the Hollywood Reporter describes it:

The Palestine Red Crescent Society stayed on the line with the child for more than an hour as she pleaded for rescue. An ambulance sent to reach her was itself destroyed, killing the two medics on board. Hind’s voice — fragments of which spread online and were later verified and analyzed by outlets including The Washington Post, Sky News and Forensic Architecture — became one of the most haunting and emblematic testaments of the war in Gaza.

The actual heart-wrenching phone call figures prominently in the film.

The IDF pumped 335 bullets into the car in which Hind and others were sitting. In its investigation, London-based Forensic Architecture explained that the weapon used for the attack was “firing at a range of 750–900 rounds per minute,” and that this range exceeded that of the AK-type assault rifle commonly used by Palestinian fighters operating in Gaza. “This range of rounds per minute is consistent with Israeli army-issued weaponry such as the M4 assault rifle or the FN MAG machine gun on a Merkava tank,” the investigation determined.

The Forensic Architecture probe, as reported by Middle East Eye, used “a mix of kinetic analysis, satellite imagery and footage sourced from the site of the incident” and “also found that the Israeli tank that fired upon the vehicle Rajab was sitting inside must have been positioned within 13 to 23 metres when it killed Layan, Rajab’s 15-year-old cousin.” FA concluded: “It’s not plausible that the shooter could not have seen that the car was occupied by civilians, including children.” The bodies of the 6-year-old and the two paramedics were not discovered for 12 days.

An Al Jazeera documentary aired October 20, Tip of the Iceberg, revealed the unit allegedly responsible for the massacre as well as the names of the IDF personnel involved. The same day, the Hind Rajab Foundation filed a 120-page document at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The new filing, according to the Foundation, names

24 Israeli soldiers and commanders responsible for the killing of Hind Rajab, six members of her family, and two Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics, Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, who were deliberately targeted while attempting to rescue her on 29 January 2024 in Gaza City.

The submission provides detailed evidence

identifying the Vampire Empire Company of the 52nd Armoured Battalion (“Ha-Bok’im / The Breachers”), operating under Israel’s 401st Armoured Brigade.
The complaint names:
Colonel Beni Aharon, Commander of the 401st Armoured Brigade
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Ella, Commander of the 52nd Armoured Battalion
Major Sean Glass [allegedly a former US Navy Seal], Commander of the Vampire Empire Company
along with 22 identified tank crew members of the same company who directly participated in or facilitated the attack.

Furthermore, the Foundation document

includes comprehensive digital, satellite, and forensic evidence confirming that Merkava IV tanks of the Vampire Empire Company repeatedly fired on the black Kia Picanto in which Hind and her family were trapped, and later targeted the ambulance sent to rescue her.