The voice of Hind Rajab

January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year-old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.

There was something electric in the energy around this project so immediate, so alive. I never imagined it would be possible to go from start to finish in just twelve months. Here’s how it all began: I was in the middle of the Oscar campaign for Les filles d’Olfa, and mentally preparing to finally enter pre- production on a film I had been writing for ten years. Then, during a layover at LAX, everything shifted. I heard an audio recording of Hind Rajab begging for help. By then, her voice had already spread across the Internet. I immediately felt a mix of helplessness, and an overwhelming sadness. A physical reaction, like the ground shifted under me. I couldn’t carry on as planned. I contacted the Red Crescent and asked them to let me hear the full audio. After listening to it, I knew, without a doubt, that I had to drop everything else. I had to make this film. I spoke at length with Hind’s mother, with the real people who were on the other end of that call, those who tried to help her. I listened, I cried, I wrote. Then I wove a story around their testimonies, using the real audio recording of Hind’s voice, and building a single-location film where the violence remains off-screen. That was a deliberate choice. Because violent images are everywhere on our screens, our timelines, our phones. What I wanted was to focus on the invisible: the waiting, the fear, the unbearable sound of silence when help doesn’t come. Sometimes, what you don’t see is more devastating than what you do. At the heart of this film is something very simple, and very hard to live with. I cannot accept a world where a child calls for help and no one comes. That pain, that failure, belongs to all of us. This story is not just about Gaza. It speaks to a universal grief. And I believe that fiction (especially when it draws from verified, painful, real events) is cinema’s most powerful tool. More powerful than the noise of breaking news or the forgetfulness of scrolling. Cinema can preserve a memory. Cinema can resist amnesia.
May Hind Rajab’s voice be heard.

PRODUCTION 1:
Mime Films - Nadim Cheikhrouha
Avenue du 10 Décembre 1948, Immeuble Saadi, Tour AB, Bureau A26
1004 Menzah 4 – Tunis, Tunisia
Tel: +33 682086487
E-mail: mimefilmstunisia@gmail.com

PRODUCTION 2:
Tanit Films - Nadim Cheikhrouha
61 Rue Piat
75020 Paris, France
Tel: +33 682086487
E-mail: nadim.cheikhrouha@gmail.com

PRODUCTION 3:
JW Films - Jim Wilson
E-mail: jw@jw-films.com

PRODUCTION 4:
RaeFilm Studios - Odessa Rae
123 Washington St #53H
10006 New York, United States of America
Tel: +1 3109207832
E-mail: Odessarae@gmail.com
Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/odxssarae?igsh=MTQ4bXMzdWc3OTVz&utm_source=qr

WORLD SALES:
The Party Film Sales - Samuel Blanc
16 rue Frochot
75009 Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 40 22 92 15 / +33 6 77 19 48 58
E-mail: samuel.blanc@thepartysales.com

ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION:
I Wonder Pictures
Via della Zecca, 2
40121 Bologna, Italia
E-mail: distribution@iwonderpictures.com
Web: http://www.iwonderpictures.com

PRESS OFFICE:
Charles McDonald - International Rescue PR
61B Rivington Street
EC2A 3QQ London, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 7785 246377‬
E-mail: charles@charlesmcdonald.co.uk

ITALIAN PRESS OFFICE:
Stefania Collalto - Echo
Via G. B. Morgagni, 33
20129 Milano, Italia
Tel: +39 3394279472
E-mail: collalto@echogroup.it