At the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival, «The Voice of Hind Rajab», a poignant film by Kaouther Ben Hania, unveiled the harrowing true story of a six-year-old girl's final moments during an Israeli offensive in Gaza. Executive-produced by Hollywood heavyweights and starring Clara Khoury, the film serves as a powerful indictment of the international community's failure to address the ongoing plight of the Palestinian people. A child's voice, a name, and the face of Hind Rajab. A six-year-old girl calling for help from inside a car surrounded by death, her pleas looping endlessly as she waits for an emergency rescue that will never come. Her final words describe an Israeli tank advancing straight toward her. These are the last moments of the only surviving passenger of a vehicle trapped during an Israeli offensive in northern Gaza on January 29, 2024. From the deafening silence that swallowed her distress, to the helplessness of witnessing yet another victim of genocide, and the disturbing normalization of images of occupation that expose the failings of the international community, Kaouther Ben Hania has crafted The Voice of Hind Rajab. The film was screened on Monday at the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival (November 28 – December 6, 2025). Executive-produced by Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón, and Jonathan Glazer, the film reconstructs the true story of Hind Rajab, who called the Palestinian Red Crescent after the car she was in came under Israeli fire. Among the cast, Palestinian-American actress Clara Khoury portrays Nisreen Jeries Qawas, the real-life director of psychosocial support and mental health at the Palestinian Red Crescent. Present in Marrakech to present the film, the actress spoke to Yabiladi about shaping a character built hand-in-hand with Nisreen, to convey the story of an entire nation still torn apart by occupation. Emotionally, your character demands a lot. How did you build this role, which carries the quiet strength of her team? I play Nisreen Jeries Qawas, a psychotherapist at the Palestinian Red Crescent. She oversees all volunteers and staff, ensuring their mental wellbeing and providing emotional support. She still works there today. To prepare, I had many phone conversations with her. I wanted to know everything, not just the tragedy of Hind Rajab, but the entire world around her: her background, her family life, her children, her hobbies… I needed these details to bring authenticity to the role. In decades of acting, I had never portrayed a real person before. This was a first for me. Carole Khoury in «The Voice of Hind Rajab» I worked with recordings of her voice, and I watched The Night Won't End, the video filmed at the Palestinian Red Crescent with Hind and Nisreen, seen around the world. I studied her body language, even though we never met in person. Outside the film, I love psychotherapy. I've been in therapy for 25 years, it's essential for me. I drew inspiration from my own therapist, Christine: her empathy, her calm, her listening, her serenity. Nisreen is the counterweight to the chaos around her. She brings balance. I also meditate frequently. On set, whenever I had a moment, I would lie down and listen to a guided meditation. Sometimes the cast joined me. The atmosphere was intense, but filled with love and kindness. Kaouther Ben Hania was extraordinary, she gave us freedom and immense care. I've always admired her. Being part of her work is an honor. Some say cinema needs temporal distance from real events, yet «The Voice of Hind Rajab» shows how fiction and reality can converge. What does this say about the urgency of telling the Palestinian story? This year alone, we've seen four or five films about Palestine, many through women's perspectives. As a mother and an artist, the past two years have been a nightmare. We've watched genocide unfold in real time. We've scrolled through horrific images. It has been devastating. Hind Rajab / Ph. «The Voice of Hind Rajab» - Kaouther Ben Hania I felt an urgent need to speak out, because I felt silenced, targeted. I admire artists who use their storytelling power to make meaningful cinema, so the world can see our stories, our suffering. Cinema creates empathy. It allows viewers to live someone else's experience, to discover other people, other nations, other realities they never knew existed. After decades in film, how do you view your role as a Palestinian actress from Haifa, rooted in your culture yet now part of the diaspora? It has been a long journey. Some roles I'm proud of; others I prefer to forget. As we grow, the artist within us grows too. I took a break from acting to build a family, raise my children, and start a new life in Northern California. It was necessary, to step back and become more selective about the stories I want to tell. For me, participating in a film like The Voice of Hind Rajab feels completely natural in this moment. I'm proud to have contributed to it, to leave a trace in the narrative of our people. Hind Rajab One day, my daughter will ask me: «Where were you during all of this?» And now I know my answer: «I helped tell this story, a story that needed to be told».
