Gaza girl's story earns 24-minute ovation at Venice

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania said on Thursday she hopes the rapturous reception given to her new film 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' at the Venice Film Festival would help carry its harrowing story to audiences worldwide.

Recounting the final hours of a 5-year-old girl from Gaza who died in 2024 after she was trapped in a car under Israeli fire, the movie drew a 24-minute standing ovation at its premiere on Wednesday — by far the longest so far this year.

"It was overwhelming because I didn't expect that," Ben Hania told Reuters. "I'm so, so grateful to Venice for the selection (of the film) and to give us such an incredible beginning of the career of the movie."

The applause only ended when officials had to ask the audience to leave because another film was due to be screened. Amer Hlehel, an actor who plays a Red Crescent dispatcher trying to organise the girl's rescue, said he had mixed emotions over the thunderous reception.

"There is a guilty feeling that we are celebrating while people are still suffering from starvation and mass killing," he said, adding that the cast and crew felt they were "on a mission" to tell Rajab's story to the rest of the world.

The girl was trying to flee Gaza City on January 29, 2024, when the vehicle in which she was riding came under attack by Israeli forces. She survived the initial gunfire and pleaded with Red Crescent staff — in heart-rending audio used in the film — to save her.

Israel finally gave the green light for the rescue after a three-hour wait, but contact with the ambulance crew was cut shortly after they arrived at the scene. The bodies of Rajab, some of her relatives and the two medics were found days later.

The Israeli forces initially denied that its troops had been within firing range of the car. However, a subsequent UN report blamed Israel. Israel said this week that the incident was still under review and declined further comment.

'The Voice of Hind Rajab' has yet to secure a US distributor, but Ben Hania said she remained hopeful. Films critical of Israel can struggle to get a broad release in the United States. A hard-hitting film about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, "No Other Land," won this year's best documentary feature Oscar, but despite its critical success, no major US distributor bought the project.

However, Ben Hania's film has attracted some top Hollywood names as executive producers, giving it added industry heft, including actors Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara. "I hope it will be seen in the US," Ben Hania said, noting that Tunisia has already chosen it as its submission for best international feature at the 2026 Academy Awards.

"The most important thing is that 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' reaches everybody all over the world and the Oscars and Venice here are a great doorway," she said, dismissing any suggestion that the film might prove controversial. "The killing of a child should not be divisive. It's a crime," she said.