A few days ago, I wrote about the most prominent film from this year’s fall festivals still waiting to land a U.S. distributor: Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab.” The film, which took home the Grand Jury Prize at Venice and counts Brad Pitt, and Joaquin Phoenix among its producers, reconstructs the killing of a five-year-old girl in Gaza — using her actual voice recordings.
Tunisia has selected “The Voice of Hind Rajab” as its official Oscar submission, and it’s widely expected to be a contender for Best International Feature. Last year’s “No Other Land,” a Gaza-set documentary, also found itself orphaned in the U.S. market — only to make history by winning the Oscar for Best Documentary without a distributor.
Deadline has now expanded on my original reporting, suggesting that ‘Hind Rajab‘ could follow a similar trajectory, potentially through a self-distribution model. Last year’s “No Other Land” earned $2.5M in U.S. theaters alone by going the self-distribution route.
When Deadline reached out to a dozen U.S. and international distributors, financiers, and producers for insight, none were willing to go on record. One prominent U.S. buyer, however, admitted: “Buyers are passing out of fear and/or they disagree with the film’s politics. I am very surprised.”
The reported asking price sits in the mid-six figures — not unreasonable for an awards-season contender, yet enough to give pause in today’s cautious marketplace. Streamers and distributors alike have grown wary of “challenging” films, particularly those addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Another American buyer told Deadline, “While everyone acknowledges it is essentially an automatic ticket to the awards race, it feels almost cynical to acquire it purely for that reason. And no matter one’s politics, it will be a lightning rod that will overshadow anything else a given distributor will be handling this season.”
One source close to the film put it bluntly: “You can dress it up all you like, but ultimately the film hasn’t been picked up due to fear. In my view, it’s an unfounded fear when counterbalanced with the artistic merit and commercial prospects of the film.”
Another producer pointed to the aftermath of October 7 as a decisive factor: “You cannot tell a story right now of anything post-October 7 without contextualizing October 7. You can’t skip it or minimize it, because it’s not a small part of the context.”
However, the filmmakers counter that framing. A source close to “The Voice of Hind Rajab” argued, “I think there is ideology in the suggestion that this film should address October 7. The heinous, appalling and unjustifiable massacre of October 7 followed decades of violence. The region has seen a very long cycle of violence and oppression… How many films about war begin with a full political history? Did ‘American Sniper’?”
While negotiations continue, insiders suggest that “The Voice of Hind Rajab” could ultimately bypass traditional distribution altogether. According to Deadline’s reporting, the filmmakers are preparing for a self-distribution strategy, potentially raising a P&A (prints and advertising) fund to bring the film directly to audiences.
The theatrical version runs 108 minutes, so we're talking a nearly 2-hour-10-minute cut of a movie that works because it's lean, and I'm not sure anyone needs that.