The Doha Film Institute (DFI) has announced that the 2025 Doha Film Festival will open with The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by award-winning filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania. The film recently won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.Premiering on September 3 at Venice, The Voice of Hind Rajab became one of the festival’s most emotional highlights, earning a 23-minute standing ovation—the longest of this year’s edition—and leaving audience members visibly moved and in tears.DFI said its decision to open this year’s festival, running from November 20–28 with this powerful film “reflects the Institute’s mission to champion truth, amplify unheard voices, and confront the harsh realities shaping our world.”Fatma Hassan Alremiahi, Festival Director and Chief Executive Officer of DFI, said that opening the festival with The Voice of Hind Rajab is to honour truth. “Hind’s voice, trembling yet unyielding, speaks to every one of us. It is the story of all children, women, and men of Palestine whose lives have been shattered by violent aggression of the Israeli occupation and whose resilience continues to inspire global conscience”.A recipient of the Institute’s grants program, the powerful film documents the final moments of six-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza, whose desperate cries for help shook the world’s conscience in January 2024 before she was killed by Israeli occupation forces, who sprayed 355 bullets at the car she was in.“This powerful film demonstrates cinema’s unique role in amplifying voices that matter, reflecting the pain and courage of the Palestinian people, and the extraordinary efforts of the unsung heroes who tried to save an innocent child.”“By honouring Hind’s memory and that of countless others, we aim to awaken empathy, inspire justice, and remind the world that no story—no matter how painful—should be left untold,” Al Remiahi said.The Voice of Hind Rajab integrates actual emergency call recordings with scripted performances in recreating the harrowing period when the young Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, was trapped and killed in a car under Israel’s military fire. Hollywood luminaries, including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Alfonso Cuaron have joined on board as Executive Producers, and the film will represent Tunisia at the 98th Academy Awards.Doha Film Festival will transform iconic locations across Doha, including Katara Cultural Village, Msheireb Downtown Doha, and the Museum of Islamic Art, into vibrant hubs of cultural exchange, bringing together filmmakers, storytellers, and audiences from every corner of the globe. (ICE Doha)

Fonte notizia: DOHA NEWS