A film about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli soldiers received a 23 minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.
Directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, The Voice of Hind Rajab, left much of the audience and cast in tears after the screening.
Members of the audience also broke out into chants of “free Palestine” after the screening had concluded.
The docudrama, which was showing during the 82nd iteration of the festival, tells the story of a Palestinian girl who fled Gaza City with six of her family members in January 2024 when their vehicle was shelled by Israeli tanks.
Her uncle, aunt, and three cousins all died in the attack.
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Rajab and another cousin – who initially survived – contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) by phone seeking help and a recording of that conversation was later made public.
The child was heard pleading, “please come, I am scared”.
Before medics could reach the children, Israeli soldiers resumed fire on the vehicle, killing them.
An investigation by Forensic Architecture found that Israeli soldiers knew that there were children in the vehicle and that at least 335 bullets were fired at it.
Last week, Hollywood stars Joaquin Phoenix and Brad Pitt joined a group of film industry figures putting their weight behind the movie.
Pitt and Phoenix were joined as executive directors by Oscar-winning filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, Roma director Alfonso Cuaron and actress Rooney Mara.
Speaking about her film, Ben Hania said: “I cannot accept a world where a child calls for help and no one comes. That pain, that failure, belongs to all of us.”
Rajab’s image has become symbolic of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the disproportionate toll it has taken on children.
More than 63,000 people have been killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
At least 18,000 of those killed were children.
