SALA News:
The Free Palestine Series will host a free community screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 24 at SALA Event Center, 2551 Central Ave.
Admission is free and open to the public. The screening is expected to be the only opportunity for Los Alamos residents to see the film on a big screen, as it has received extremely limited US theatrical distribution.
The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) is directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, the Tunisian filmmaker previously nominated for an Academy Award for Four Daughters. The film received the Grand Jury Prize (Silver Lion) at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, where its premiere was met with a 23-minute, 50-second standing ovation — the longest recorded in the history of any major international film festival, surpassing the previous record set by Pan’s Labyrinth at Cannes.
The film subsequently received an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards and was named one of the 10 best films of 2025 by critics at the New York Times, the Associated Press, and The Hollywood Reporter. Executive producers include Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón, and Jonathan Glazer.
The film is based on the true story of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl who became trapped in a car in Gaza Jan. 29, 2024, after Israeli military fire killed her family members. Her emergency calls to the Palestine Red Crescent Society — recordings that circulated widely around the world — form the emotional core of the film. The rescue mission dispatched to reach her was obstructed at IDF checkpoints. Hind and both paramedics sent to save her were killed. The film was made in partnership with Hind’s family and the Palestine Red Crescent Society, blending those real recordings with dramatizations of the rescue attempt.
“This film has moved audiences on every continent,” said Kelly Myers, one of the event’s organizers. “We wanted to bring it home — to give our community the chance to sit together, watch together, and bear witness together. That’s what this screening is about.”
Donations will be accepted at the door. All proceeds go directly to Palestinian humanitarian organizations, including the Palestine Red Crescent Society and The Sameer Project.
The screening is presented by the Free Palestine Series, a group of independent local community organizers who also host a weekly Free Palestine protest at 11 a.m. every Saturday at Ashley Pond Park in Los Alamos.