The anguished final pleas of a five-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car under Israeli fire are retold in The Voice of Hind Rajab, a searing new film that premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Reuters reports.
“Hind’s story carries the weight of an entire people,” one of the actors, Saja Kilani, told reporters in a statement that she read out on behalf of the whole cast and crew.
The true-life drama focuses on telephone operators from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society who tried for hours to reassure the trapped Hind Rajab as she begged to be rescued from the car, where her aunt, uncle and three cousins already lay dead.
“I’m so scared, please come,” the little girl says, with the original recordings of her increasingly desperate calls to the dispatchers used to powerful effect throughout the film.
“The real question is, how have we let a child beg for life? No one can live in peace while even one child is forced to plead for survival … Let Hind Rajab’s voice echo around the world,” Kilani said.
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