The Voice of Hind Rajab: The Film They Don’t Want You to See
JVL Introduction
It is immensely difficult to see the film “The Voice of Hind Rajab”? Despite critical acclaim, an Oscar-nominated director and industry heavyweights like Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix behind it, American distributors are frightened.
So, too in the UK where it was briefly available but apparently no more in the cinemas.
Chris Hedges did manage to find a screening in New York and says of it:
“It is not only devastating, not only a cinematic masterpiece, but it rips back all the layers of rhetoric and propaganda to expose the fundamental struggle between the Israeli occupier and the occupied. The struggle is, yes, a conflict about the theft of Palestinian land. It is, as well, a conflict about a violent and lethal occupation, one that has become full-blown genocide in Gaza. But it is also the ancient struggle between the forces of life and death.”
It is supposedly available to stream in the UK on Apple TV and Amazon, but it is not clear if this is before 10th March (previously we had beleived it was 3rd March).
RK
This article was originally published by Chris Hedges substack on Thu 26 Feb 2026. Read the original here.
The Voice of Hind Rajab: The Film They Don’t Want You to See
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I saw it in my local independent cinema. It’s heart-breaking, but an essential experience for anyone, who wants to see through the lens of a camera and hear actual recordings of the conversation with Hind Rajab. The footage at the end, after the Zionist tanks had withdrawn, shows the mangled remains of the Red Crescent Ambulance, which was blown to pieces on its way to save that little child. If you do get the opportunity to see it, or if it is released on DVD, its not to be missed. It shows what barbaric `animals` the IOF really are.
I saw it here in our small cinema in Hay on Wye, where it had 3 showings…alas, very few attendees. We were speechless when we left the cinema…and didn’t exchange words till we got indoors. Powerful indictment of a barbaric regime
A few weeks ago i saw the movie in NatLab, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The awful tragedy has been haunting me since i listened to the recordings in january/february 2024, but it was mainly the voice and the final words of Layan that etched into my mind. It was the explicit rawness, the brutal and conscious, purposeful killing, the dispair and extreme fear in her voice, her screaming cut off by the salvo of heavy machinegun bullets, the silence following, a silence reinforced by the unanswered “Hello’s” from the man of the Red Crescent.
At first i thought i will buy a ticket to support the important production, but i will not actually go and watch. But i did watch it. There weren’t a lot of people, maybe ten, while i thought it would be crowded.
The film is very very intense. Even now, while writing this, i get aware of me clenching my jaws. For me extreme anger is what surfaced most and what remains. Shame too for the complicity of the Dutch government, even our recently new installed cabinet with prime minister Rob Jetten who walked in the front row of the Red Line, maybe even Lines, refuses to even acknowledge the State of Palestine, let alone take measures like sanctions, stopping financial and military aid, acknowledge Israel is committing a genocide!
What is also strong is that the story is in the present tense. It is in the forever now.
But i am afraid it will only reach people who do not have to be convinced that Israel has become evil at its worst, an accumulation of terror ever since the first settlers raised fences and started terrorizing the people of Palestine.
Maybe it should be put in educational programs in schools? In what way can this important film reach a wider audience?
Will the film ultimately be reproduced and made available for purchase by one of the charities?