by Julian Wood
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Motaz Malhees, Mahdi M Aljamal, Saja Kilani, Hind Rajab (voice)
Intro:
… a very effective piece of filmmaking.
Making films set in Gaza is a deliberate choice in these times. When we say Gaza, we translate this in our heads to mean the ‘situation in Gaza’ and, that too has different realities and different interpretations.
Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania (who made the admired and innovative Four Daughters in 2023) has waded right in and made a very impactful film which will stay in people’s minds. The film won the grand jury prize at Venice 2025, so it is well and truly on the arthouse map. She has also used some Palestinian actors which adds an extra dimension of topicality/reality.
This is a sort of docu-drama, in the sense that it takes a real situation (reported upon at the time) and recreates it with actors. She uses the actual sound from the Gaza conflict. Of course, they could not film this in Gaza as media access is tightly controlled.
The plot – if that is what we may call it – hinges on the work of the Red Crescent [the equivalent for the Muslim world of the Red Cross]. For almost all of the film, we remain inside the claustrophobic glass cage of their call centre, where we focus in particular on Omar (Motaz Malhees) and his coworker Rana (Saja Kilani). Omar gets a call from a frightened girl called Hind, who is sheltering in her car while the war rages around her. Omar immediately involves the call centre boss Amer (Mahdi M Aljamal). The call centre is very sophisticated technologically and they are used to complex operations, but the challenges are never simple. They can see on their map that they could send an ambulance and crew and get there in about eight minutes if they could take a direct route. However, Amer is reluctant to authorise this because he has already lost several crews in recent times and cannot afford to lose another one. He has to withstand Omar’s and Rana’s pleas. He says that he cannot send help if they don’t get the ‘green light’ from the diplomatic channels that liaise with the Israeli soldiers who have military control of the area. The various stages and powers of sign off delay the whole process.
The film works up a terrible tension as we get drawn into the desperate attempts to rescue the little girl. The ‘will they/won’t they get there’ device rachets up inexorably. This becomes almost unbearable by the end as intended.
The voice of Hind, by the way, is the voice of the real girl taken from the audio files of the centre. The film tells us this upfront. Beyond that, as it is a dramatic reconstruction, some elements have to be fictionalised. The fact that the voice is Hind’s makes it more intensely sad and personal, but the protective feeling evoked in the centre staff (and in us) is universal.
It goes without saying that this is a very effective piece of filmmaking. Perhaps for some it might be seen as emotionally manipulative but, against that, there is the undeniable and horribly familiar fact that the victims of armed conflict are also innocent civilians.
