A Rabbit’s Foot hosted a special screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab—the year’s most urgent film

On Monday Night at the Curzon Mayfair, A Rabbit’s Foot and Altitude hosted a special screening of what may be this year’s most urgent film: The Voice of Hind Rajab. Fresh from winning the Grand Jury Prize at Venice, Kaouther Ben Hania’s work has already travelled far beyond the usual festival circuit—screening just last week at the United Nations. The film reconstructs the tragic murder of six-year-old Hind Rajab, the Palestinian girl whose final moments, recorded by the Red Crescent, shocked the world when they surfaced on social media.

Its power has not diminished. The London audience discovered as much last night: sobs rippled through the theatre, and a long, heavy silence lingered until Ben Hania, lead actor Motaz Malhees, and producer Nadim Cheikhrouha stepped onto the stage for a Q&A hosted by legendary filmmaker Jonathan Glazer. Rather than conventional questions, many in the crowd chose simply to express gratitude—for the film’s message, its urgency, and Ben Hania’s remarkable craft. As one woman near the front said, “May you continue this kind of art for a world that needs it.”

Glazer, who served as an executive producer on the project (with Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix also attached), probed what he called the “craft questions”: the decision to release the film so soon after Rajab’s death, and the parallels between its reception and the rapidly shifting public consciousness he observed with The Zone of Interest. “When I made my speech at the Academy Awards,” he noted, “the reaction was very different. But today the tides are turning. Common sense, as they say, prevails.”

Malhees, himself Palestinian, spoke movingly about the role and about growing up in Jenin during the 2002 massacre. Fighting back tears, he explained, “I do this because it gives hope. It makes change.” Recalling his memories of Jenin, he added, “Those emotions came right back to the surface.”

The audience included many of London’s most exciting young filmmakers and actors, with the film’s producers Odessa Rae and James Wilson also in attendance. Afterwards, guests drifted to Little House Mayfair for drinks and conversation, the impact of the film still reverberating long after the credits had faded.