A few weeks 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.
Some good news came for the film this morning. “Hind Rajab” has found a home and will be distributed by WILLA, the production partner’s distribution arm. The film will debut in U.S. theaters on Dec. 17.
Tunisia selected the film 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.
WILLA isn’t necessarily A24 or Neon, but it’ll do for this film. According to Deadline, which spoke to a dozen U.S. and international distributors, financiers, and producers for insight, buyers were passing on the film either out of fear or because they “disagree with the film’s politics.”