‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ Director Kaouther Ben Hania on Opening the Doha Film Festival and Her Struggle for U.S. Distribution: ‘They All Passed’

Kaouther Ben Hania elicited the longest standing ovation in recent memory at the Venice Film Festival in September, when her powerful, political film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” premiered to more than 20 minutes of thunderous applause.

The Tunisian director, whose two previous films — “The Man Who Sold His Skin” and “Four Daughters” — were Oscar-nominated, has since been touring the festival circuit with “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which is Tunisia’s official submission for international feature at the Academy Awards. It centers on a single, haunting voice: that of a real 5-year-old Palestinian girl trapped inside a car that was attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza and later found dead.

Ahead of the film’s official Arab world premiere at the inaugural Doha Film Festival, Ben Hania spoke to Variety about the response to “The Voice of Hind Rajab” around the world so far and her struggle to get it released in the U.