Sarah Champion's 'sickening anxiety' over 'heart-breaking' film
Rotherham MP Sarah Champion has revealed the depth of her own emotional turmoil after watching a film about the tragedy in Gaza, a humanitarian crisis which is close to her heart.
Despite being an experienced politician who regularly deals with distressing evidence, Champion said the experience left her shaken.
She spoke of feeling “a sickening anxiety” and said the impact stayed with her long after the screening ended.
That anxiety was rooted in recognition. Through her parliamentary and international work, she knows what daily life has been like for civilians in Gaza, and said that knowledge made the emotional toll heavier rather than easier.
Champion admitted the film 'The Voice of Hind Rajab,' disturbed her deeply, describing elements of it as terrifying, brutal and heart-breaking.
The emotional effect did not fade quickly.
Champion said she and her partner Richard Butterworth both had nightmares after watching the film, something she suggested spoke to its power.
The film recounts the real-life attempts to rescue six-year-old Hind Rajab during the Israeli military operation in Gaza in January two years ago.
Champion said the focus on one child stripped away any emotional distance.
Rather than abstract statistics, the story forces viewers to confront the human reality of the conflict, she said.
The docudrama combines dramatised scenes with real recordings of phone calls between the Red Crescent emergency call centre and Hind, alongside footage of staff present during the incident.
Champion, who has served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Rotherham since 2012, said hearing the actual calls was harrowing. She added that the sound of gunfire and explosions, combined with a child pleading for help, was heart-breaking.
The 89-minute film centres on the efforts to rescue Hind, who was trapped in a car containing the bodies of her family members. The intensity of that focus was difficult for to endure.
The MP believes the rescue could have succeeded had an ambulance not been destroyed by an Israeli tank, killing two Red Crescent rescue workers.
That knowledge deepened her sense of anguish.
She stressed that the film does not attempt to lay blame or make moral judgements.
That approach resonated with her own professional experience.
As chair of the International Development Select Committee, Champion scrutinises UK aid policy and works closely with humanitarian organisations operating in conflict zones.
She said the committee has taken evidence from organisations working in Gaza, hearing first-hand accounts of the dangers faced by civilians and aid workers.
During that period, the committee had visited the Red Crescent Centre. Champion said the film portrayed the volunteers and staff very accurately.
The only difference she noticed, she wrote on politicshome.com, was the memorial wall, which now held more photographs of civilians and Red Crescent staff who had died.
Champion said the film’s power lies in its intimacy. By focusing on the real-life story of one child, she said it cuts through statistics that people may have become immune to.
*The Voice of Hind Rajab was written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania and is on general cinema release.