Amir Zaza: "I felt that Hind’s voice was following me, so I decided to turn her screams into a movie

Among dozens of stories that narrated the tragedy of the Palestinian people during the Israeli aggression, the story of the Palestinian child Hind Rajab remains one of the stories that most revealed the world’s helplessness in the face of the childhood that was assassinated, and the innocent lives that were lost in broad daylight without fault. The child who called for help through recorded phone calls to Red Crescent crews before her voice was cut off and her martyrdom was announced after twelve days of searching for her, turned into a symbol of betrayed innocence. From here, director Amir Zaza set out with his short film “Close Your Eyes, Hind,” participating in the eighth session of the El Gouna Film Festival, to turn the tragedy into a visual testimony that preserves the child’s voice and face in memory.

In this interview, Zaza talks about the motivations that led him to make the film, the difficulties he faced during filming, and his vision of what it means for art to express pain without exploiting it.

 

 

When did you decide to document the tragedy of Hind Rajab in a film?

When the child’s loss was announced, I was following the details of the story through the media like everyone else, affected and waiting for what her fate would turn out to be, especially since the news was mixed at first. It was said that she was kidnapped from inside the car by the occupation forces, and it was said that she was bombed like the rest of her family who were with her, and there was no contact with her for twelve days, until the news of her martyrdom was confirmed. That moment left a deep impact on me, and two weeks after her martyrdom, I felt as if her voice was following me, as if there was an inner call urging me to do something. Then the decision came quickly to turn the story into a movie, and I started taking actual steps to complete it, and the process took about a year and a half.

 

 

Certainly, while preparing for work, you learned that Tunisian director Kawthar Ben Haniyeh was preparing a feature film about the same story with a huge production. Did you feel frustrated at that time?

I had started my project several months before, and of course I had moments of frustration when I learned the news, especially with the production struggle I faced to see the light of day for my film, in addition to the fact that she is a well-known, award-winning director, while I am still at the beginning of the road. This is my first professional film after graduating from the Amsterdam Film Academy, and my graduation project was previously a finalist in the Academy Awards for the Student Film category. But I soon realized that the story, by its nature, requires more than one treatment, because it is primarily human. I preferred to narrate it from the more difficult perspective, from inside the car that was bombed, while Kaouther Ben Haniyeh chose to narrate it from the perspective of the Red Crescent.

 

All the heroes participating in the film are non-professional actors. Was this a challenge for you?

Indeed, all the participants in the film were Arab and Syrian volunteers residing in the Netherlands. I had to train them to perform and control the Palestinian dialect with the help of friends, but the biggest challenge was directing the child who played the role of Hind, but fate was merciful, as her mother was an education specialist and she was following up with us on all the details, and was keen to monitor any psychological impact that the role might leave on her daughter. As for the child, she was She is remarkably mature and has awareness beyond her years. I remember our first conversation when I was explaining the character’s background to her, and she said to me innocently:

 "I feel sad for Hind, but I know that she is now in a beautiful place, and my mother told me that children are birds in paradise."

This sentence affected me greatly, so I added it to the scenario as it was.  

 

How was communication with Hind’s family during the preparation of the film?

 

It happened by chance through social media. At first I tried to communicate through friends, but it was difficult because the family was still very sad, so they advised me to wait. Later, through the “Instagram” application, she was able to communicate with her mother, Mrs. Wissam, and her uncle, Ihab Hamada. I had imagined Hind as a child who was smart and affectionate beyond her years, and her uncle assured me that she was indeed that way, which reassured me that the picture she painted was close to the truth. In addition to my lengthy conversations with the family, I also relied on press interviews, field reports, and documents as sources of information, such as the scene of the phone call that represents the echo of India’s last call. I obtained the text of it from the Red Crescent, but I added scenes that serve the dramatic structure, and when the family saw the film, they were deeply affected.

 

You faced many production difficulties until you decided to undertake the production of the film yourself. How was this journey?

Initially, I presented the project to a production company with whom I have a good relationship, and they were enthusiastic about it from a humanitarian standpoint, but later backed down out of fear of the sensitivity of the subject. Then I realized that I had to take full responsibility. My team encouraged me, saying: “You convinced us to work as volunteers, and you will convince the production companies to support you.” I got excited and started calculating the cost and found it was about five hundred thousand euros, which is a large number, of course. I contacted dozens of humanitarian organizations around the world asking for support, and out of forty organizations, only one responded and provided symbolic support worth two thousand euros. However, within a month, we were able to raise about eighty thousand euros, and we shot the film in just four days.

 

We saw the audience crying inside the screening hall at the El Gouna Film Festival. How was the film’s reception at its first showing in the Netherlands?

 

The world premiere was in the Netherlands, because it is the country of production, and the reaction was very touching. The Dutch people are very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and the film won the Best Short Film award at the official Dutch festival. We then started organizing performances in schools as part of awareness programmes, which made me very happy. As for the show at the El Gouna Festival, it was completely different, as the Arab audience was closer to the issue, and more emotional about what happened to India.

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