![[Clockwise from top left]: 'The Voice Of Hind Rajab', 'A House Of Dynamite', 'Jay Kelly', 'After The Hunt', 'The Smashing Machine'](https://d1nslcd7m2225b.cloudfront.net/Pictures/274x183/1/7/0/1459170_veniceawards_837515.jpg)
Thousands of people are estimated to have turned out for a demonstration in San Sebastian on Wednesday (September 24) to protest Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Crowds gathered in front of Victoria Eugenia Theatre after the Spanish premiere of Kaouther ben Hania’s Venice Silver Lion grand jury prize winner The Voice Of Hind Rajab and proceeded to march through the streets of the Basque city.
San Sebastian Film Festival director José Luis Rebordinos, Spain’s minister of culture Ernest Urtasun, and filmmakers Isaki Lacuesta and Julio Medem were among the participants.
The Voice Of Hind Rajab cast members Saja Kilani and Motaz Malhees introduced the screening, which drew an emotional response.
Based on actual events from January 2024, the docufiction depicts efforts by Palestinian Red Crescent aid workers to save six-year-old Palestinian Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces in a car in Gaza City alongside several members of her family. Ben Hania used the actual audio recording of Rajab’s calls to emergency services.
Palestinian actor Malhees told Screen: “I still hear Hind’s voice in my head, in my dreams. I remember telling Saja during the shoot, ‘Let’s just save her in our imagination.’
“There was even a moment during the film when I got so involved that I thought we were going to save her and maybe that’s one of the reasons why I chose to be an actor: to make things possible that are not so in real life,” Malhees said.
”But real life slaps you in the face and you realise she was killed, alongside six members of her family, in cold blood. And there are thousands and thousands like her.”
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