'The Voice of Hind Rajab' Review: A Harrowing, Powerful and Hard to Watch Docudrama
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By Dan Bremner - February 19, 2026
The critically-acclaimed docudrama (just nominated for the Best International Feature Oscar) focusing on the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab arrives with the kind of real-world weight that makes rating it feel almost reductive. I’m in nowhere near a position to claim a “side” when it comes to Israel and Palestine, a conflict decades in the making, reignited with devastating force after October 7th and the relentless retaliation that has since left Gaza in ruins. It’s not a simple good-versus-evil narrative, as history, politics and extremism on both sides have created a situation that defies easy moral binaries. Both sides have done evil and cruel things, and both have their reasons depending on who you ask. What this film chooses to do, however, is step away from geopolitics and focus on something painfully specific: the real event of a single child, trapped, terrified, and pleading for help. In doing so, it strips away ideology and forces you to confront the human cost of modern warfare in the most intimate way imaginable.
At its core, The Voice of Hind Rajab is less about strategy, blame or military justification and more about civilians caught in the crossfire. It zeroes in on the ordinary people who have no control over airstrikes, retaliation cycles or political rhetoric, the ones who pay the ultimate price for yet another pointless war in human history. The framing device is devastatingly simple: volunteers at the Palestine Red Crescent Society remain on the phone with Hind as she hides in a car surrounded by destruction. The film unfolds largely in real time, transforming what could have been a conventional documentary into something closer to a chamber thriller, except the stakes are heartbreakingly real.
The most striking and controversial element is the use of Hind’s actual recorded emergency calls. Hearing a real child’s voice in a frightened, confused state asking for rescue is almost unbearable. It’s an artistic decision that sits on a knife’s edge. On one hand, it creates a level of authenticity and immediacy that no dramatization could replicate. On the other hand, it inevitably raises ethical questions. Is this bearing witness, or is it edging into exploitation? Is it preserving memory, or turning trauma into cinematic suspense? I found myself conflicted throughout. There’s no doubt the audio is shatteringly effective. Whether it is entirely tasteful is something I’m still wrestling with.
Formally, director Kaouther Ben Hania (Four Daughters) blends documentary realism with dramatized sequences focused on the aid workers trying desperately to coordinate a rescue. This hybrid approach works remarkably well, done in a very Paul Greengrass way. The Red Crescent volunteers add emotional weight with their helplessness, frustration and determination providing a human counterpoint to the unseen violence outside. By keeping much of the physical devastation off-screen, the film avoids graphic sensationalism. Instead, it lets tension build through close-ups, hushed exchanges, ringing phones and the unbearable ticking of time towards a predetermined outcome you already know. It’s restraint rather than spectacle, and it’s far more powerful because of it.
The performances are exceptional across the board. Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees and Amer Hlehel portraying the aid workers convey exhaustion and empathy with remarkable authenticity. You feel their desperation as bureaucratic obstacles, logistical chaos and military realities collide. Their inability to physically reach Hind becomes the film’s agonizing engine. It’s not showy acting, it's contained, raw, and feels authentic. The emotional intensity feels earned rather than manipulative, even as the material itself is almost impossibly heavy.
Where the film becomes truly vital is in its insistence on memory. In a conflict saturated with statistics, political talking points and dehumanizing language, this story narrows the lens to one name, one voice, one life. It resists abstraction. Regardless of political alignment, it is impossible to listen to a child beg for help and not feel something rupture inside you. The film doesn’t present policy arguments, it presents a human being. That alone gives it a moral clarity that transcends factional debate.
The ethical discomfort does linger. The decision to structure the narrative almost like a suspense thriller (complete with escalating tension and withheld outcomes) risks aestheticizing real horror. Even if the intention is to honour Hind’s memory, the line between commemoration and dramatization is perilously thin. Some viewers will see it as a daring act of resistance against forgetting, others may find it crosses into territory that feels uncomfortably close to commodifying tragedy. I can’t dismiss that concern, even as I acknowledge how effective the film is at portraying its message.
The Voice of Hind Rajab is a harrowing, deeply upsetting experience, and one of the most unforgettable films of the year. It’s not an easy watch, nor should it be. It confronts the audience with the unbearable reality of civilian suffering in modern warfare and refuses to offer easy resolutions, just presents the events as they happened. Whether you view it as essential viewing or ethically contentious, it undeniably succeeds in making a compelling docudrama.
'The Voice of Hind Rajab' releases on streaming platforms March 3, and has been nominated for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards.
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