EXCLUSIVE: Hulu has acquired U.S. streaming rights to The Voice of Hind Rajab, director Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated film based on the true story of a young Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
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The haunting narrative feature includes the actual voice recordings of Hind Rajab as the five-year-old pleaded for rescue by Red Crescent first responders while she lay trapped in a car struck by the Israel Defense Forces, surrounded by the bodies of dead relatives. When Palestinian ambulance drivers finally made it near the girl’s location in Gaza City — after Red Crescent volunteers spent hours negotiating safe passage for the emergency vehicle — they were killed by the IDF. The Voice of Hind Rajab begins streaming on Hulu on Friday.
The film written and directed by Ben Hania offers “an unflinching and deeply human account of [Hind’s] final hours,” according to a release. Deadline’s Damon Wise, reviewing the film at the Venice Film Festival, called it “extraordinary… an urgent procedural that uses cinematic means — close, hand-held takes and a camera that paces around like an expectant father — to make its point.”
Director Kaouther Ben Hania attends ‘The Voice Of Hind Rajab’ photocall at the Venice Film Festival on September 3, 2025.
Daniele Venturelli/WireImage
At the Venice world premiere, the drama earned a standing ovation of over 23 minutes – the longest in festival history. (At a Q&A in Los Angeles just before the Oscars, Ben Hania noted the applause only ended after the audience was told the venue needed to be cleared for the next screening). The Voice of Hind Rajab was nominated for Best International Feature, the third Oscar nomination for Ben Hania’s work following Four Daughters (Best Documentary Feature, 2024), and The Man Who Sold His Skin (Best International Feature, 2021).
The Hulu debut follows the film’s successful theatrical release in the U.S. earlier this winter and Watermelon Pictures’ nationwide VOD and digital release. The streaming acquisition deal was negotiated by Justin DiPietro, EVP of MPI Media Group, Watermelon’s parent company.
Motaz Malhees (seated), Saja Kilani (center right), Clara Khoury (right) in ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab.’
WILLA / Courtesy Everett Collection
The film, shot in Ben Hania’s native Tunisia, stars Palestinian actors Motaz Malhees, Amer Hlehel, and Clara Khoury, and Saja Kilani who is Jordanian Canadian, of Palestinian descent. (Malhees, the release notes, “was denied entry to the United States and missed the Academy Awards ceremony.”).
The Voice of Hind Rajab was produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha (Tanit Films), Odessa Rae (RaeFilm Studios), and James Wilson (JW Films) and executive produced by Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón, Michael Moore, Spike Lee, alongside Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner and others. The film was produced in association with Plan B Entertainment, Film4, MBC Studios, Watermelon Pictures, WILLA, and additional partners. It was made in cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Hind Rajab’s mother, Wesam.
Director Kaouther Ben Hania attends the 98th Annual Academy Awards on March 15, 2026.
ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images
At the Q&A at Vidiots in Los Angeles, Ben Hania said, “I did this movie to honor [Hind’s] voice, because I found her voice lost in the scrolling of social media and she needed to be remembered.”
In the conversation, the filmmaker said at one point she considered telling the story as a documentary, but added, “I quickly understood that the documentary alone in this form is limited. Why? Because it’s about an event in the past. It’s always complicated how to film an event in the past. It stays in the past, and the documentary explains to you what happened. And I thought that it’s not enough with this story because if you want to explain, you can find this work of investigation [into the killing of Hind Rajab and her extended family].
Ben Hania continued, “We should go above explaining because at some point in this very sensitive topic, you are done explaining because [there is] a lot of bad faith and the conversation is almost impossible, somehow. So, I told myself that cinema can do something better, which is feeling — putting yourself in the shoes of a character and living [their] life. And this is wonderful, this is why I love cinema, because it’s such a great tool for empathy and it connects you. It connects our humanity.”