“If looked at as a documentary it is one of the most powerful and affecting productions I have ever seen. As a film it is too confronting to win awards. I feel no number can encapsulate its heart ripping and wrenching reality. No rating is possible here.“
Con Nats
Every now and again a documentary comes along with a storyline so powerful it can leave you shaken. So deep in the heart of its subject, it can rip at yours. And it’s all in the voice of a six-year old girl called Hind Rajab.
This dramatisation of a real event on 29 January 2024 is totally set in the offices of Red Crescent, a group of volunteers rescuing Palestinians. They receive a call and talk to one girl who is in a family car trapped at a gas station in Gaza. During the call
to the trapped family, Omar (Motaz Malhees) hears the women being shot dead. He then talks to Hindi, a six year-old girl trapped in the car. And it is full of bodies.
Get this: the phone calls from inside the car are the actual calls. And it is gut wrenching to hear the naked fear in a child’s voice.
During the ensuing hours, we realise even though Hindi is only an eight minute drive from safety, the Israeli army are shooting at their car. We can hear the firing in the background. But an official ‘co-ordination’ between the Red Cross, the Israel Ministry and army is required to ensure the ambulance isn’t shot at. It takes hours.
This ‘co-ordination’ becomes the bureaucratic hurdle which is protected by Madhi (Amer Hiehel), the team leader, who doesn’t want to send more workers to their death. It tears the team apart. And all the way through, they are trying to comfort a six-year-old girl who is terrified and begging for help. This ignites the volunteers’ anger and tightens the tension.
Writer-Director Kaouther Ben Hania has planted us at the heart of this crisis. We follow the emotions of the team talking to Hindi, her mother, while they yell at each other as emotions boil, rise and fall. They’re real and you cannot help but feel them. It’s not overacting when the picture and voice of a young terrified girl reminds you of what is at stake.
Every actor deserves an ovation. They’ve been cast on looks but all rise to the occasion as does Hania. This won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize at Venice and is among the nominees for the Golden Globe and Best International Film at the Oscars.
It doesn’t have the softer features of a film and hasn’t won the awards it deserves. Real footage reveals the outcome at the end. This doesn’t play with terminology but it’s clear the point being made. This isn’t a war or a conflict. This is murder. This is a genocide.
This is a dramatisation of actual events and it doesn’t need anything but the truth to raise the emotional and impact. And the truth revealed here is more than confronting.
If looked at as a documentary it is one of the most powerful and affecting productions I have ever seen. As a film it is too confronting to win awards.
I feel no number can encapsulate its heart ripping and wrenching reality. No rating is possible here.
Five stars are not enough.
Con Nats, On The Screen
