Heart-Wrenching Gaza Film Gets Longest Standing Ovation in Venice Film Festival History

The Venice Film Festival kicked off on August 27, convening its usual pomp and circumstance in the name of this year’s buzziest films. Among this year’s lineup is Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia. While they all drew a lengthy standing ovation, which has kind of become the festival’s signature, none received anywhere near the ovation that Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab—a harrowing retelling of the murder of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl by Israeli forces in January 2024—received.

On Wednesday, the film received a 23-minute and 50-second standing ovation, making it the current record-holder for the longest standing ovation in festival history. (Second is de Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.) According to reports, not only did the audience break into chants of “free Palestine” when the lights in the theater came up, but many attendees and journalists were “sobbing.”

The Voice of Hind Rajab forces audiences to linger on Rajab’s final, agonizing hours. In January 2024, Rajab and her family were fleeing Gaza City when their vehicle was hit by an Israeli tank. Her uncle, aunt, and three cousins died immediately, but Rajab and a 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamadeh, were alive and trapped in the vehicle—which was pinned by the tank. As the tank repeatedly fired, Hamadeh contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) for help but was shot and killed while on the line. PRCS dispatchers were then able to reach Rajab on the phone while she was left stranded in the vehicle for hours. Ultimately, the paramedics who responded were unsuccessful in rescuing Rajab as they, too, were killed. On February 10, the family’s bodies were discovered after Israeli forces withdrew.

The film has been applauded for including the original audio recording of Rajab’s conversation with PRCS, as well as for its high-profile list of producers, including Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, and Alfonso Cuarón. Phoenix and Mara attended the Venice premiere.

“The voice of Hind Rajab does not need our defense,” one of the film’s stars, Saja Kilani, said in a statement on behalf of the team. “This film is not an opinion or a fantasy. It is anchored in truth. Hind’s story carries the weight of an entire people, it is not hers alone. Her voice is one among 19,000 children who lost their lives in Gaza in the last two years alone.” According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces have murdered an estimated 18,885 children out of an estimated 64,000 total Palestinians since the start of its genocide in October 2023.