The Venice Film Festival saw a record-setting 23-minute standing ovation with the Gaza drama The Voice of Hind Rajab as the audience broke into chants of “Free Palestine.”
According to Deadline, the movie directed by Kaouther Ben Hania reconstructs “the events surrounding the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her four cousins, her aunt and uncle, and the two paramedics who came to her rescue after their car came under fire by Israeli forces as they tried to flee Gaza City in January 2024.”
Here in Venice, it’s thought that Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut, last year’s The Room Next Door, had been the ovation record-holder at 18 minutes. The longest recorded applause at a film festival had been a 22-minute standing ovation for Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth at the Cannes Film Festival.
After tonight’s screening, as the “free Palestine” chants began, Hind Rajab actor Motaz Malhees took one of many Palestinian flags in the audience and held it up in the gallery. Several audience members were seen and heard sobbing during the film — and some were still crying even after it ended.
The film saw an upsurge in interest last week after Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón and Jonathan Glazer stepped on board to become executive producers on the film. Both Phoenix and Mara were present for the film’s screening.
Tunisia has selected The Voice of Hind Rajab as its submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. During a press conference, actress Saja Kilani said, “Enough of the mass killing, the starvation, the dehumanization, the destruction, and the ongoing occupation.”
“This film is not an opinion or a fantasy. It is anchored in truth. Hind’s story carries the weight of an entire people. Her voice is one amongst 10s of 1000s of children that were killed in Gaza in the last two years alone. It is the voice of every daughter and every son with the right to live, to dream, to exist in dignity. Yet all of it was stolen in front of our unblinking eyes,” she added.
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