Overview
- The UAE premiere at Cinema Akil in Dubai played to a sold-out audience that responded with tears and solemn applause, The National reported.
- Director Kaouther Ben Hania said in a post-screening Q&A that she crafted the story in the present tense to sustain the urgency of the child’s voice.
- Built around a roughly 70-minute recording, the reenactment follows Red Crescent coordinators as they navigate permissions and protocols to dispatch help.
- A Los Angeles Times review described the hybrid as a blunt instrument of empathy that fuses documentary evidence with dramatized performances.
- The film is shortlisted for the Oscars after drawing an extended ovation at the Venice Film Festival.