Sarosh Mustafa
Venice: The 82nd Venice International Film Festival witnessed a historic and emotional moment on September 3, 2025, as Kaouther Ben Hania’s powerful drama The Voice of Hind Rajab received the longest standing ovation in the festival’s history. For nearly 24 minutes, the audience rose in tears, applause, and chants of “Free Palestine”, transforming Venice’s Sala Grande hall into a space of both remembrance and protest.
The film portrays the tragic final hours of five-year-old Hind Rajab, who lost her life in Gaza in early 2024 after being trapped under fire while pleading for rescue from the Palestinian Red Crescent. Her recorded voice forms the narrative’s spine, grounding the story in truth and amplifying the suffering of Palestinian children in conflict.
Actress Saja Kilani, who reenacts Hind’s final desperate call, said:
“This film is not an opinion or a fantasy. It is anchored in truth. Hind’s story carries the weight of an entire people.”
Hollywood stars including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón, and Jonathan Glazer attended the premiere as executive producers, underlining global solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
The nearly 24-minute ovation surpassed the Venice record of 18 minutes set in 2024 by Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door and even outlasted Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, which held a 22-minute Cannes applause in 2006.
Unlike many ovations celebrating artistry alone, this was also a political statement, with chants of solidarity echoing across Venice. The screening highlighted how cinema can bear witness to truth, transforming grief into collective resistance.
By immortalizing Hind’s voice on screen, The Voice of Hind Rajab ensures her story—and the wider tragedy of Gaza—will not be forgotten.
