Hyderabad, June 22 -- "A Happy Childhood," 5-year-old Hind Rajab replies when a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) worker asks the name of her school.

Director Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab will touch you in multiple ways, but it is the piercing irony of this particular scene that felt like the film's most resonant and haunting truth. The truth that a child studying in "butterfly class" is trapped in the machinery of war is the most uncomfortable to face, and perhaps that is why it is more important to face it.

Based on the real incident that took place on January 29, 2024, in the ravaged Gaza city of Palestine, the film incorporates Hind's real-life audio recordings along with dramatised scenes to tell the story of a ...