NAZA Documentary Sets Venice Record With 24.5-Minute Ovation — SkimNews
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- NAZA received a 24.5-minute standing ovation at its Venice premiere Thursday, setting a new festival record and surpassing last year's 22-minute record for "The Voice of Hind Rajab."
- The documentary features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers and was filmed in secret at night on Tel Aviv rooftops over three years.
- Directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor — two of the four filmmakers behind Oscar-winning "No Other Land" — examine what Abraham called the military "system" carrying out genocide, using "NAZA," an Israeli intelligence acronym for expected civilian deaths in an airstrike.
- Jonathan Glazer, Oscar-winning director of "The Zone of Interest," served as executive producer, embraced the directors during the applause, and cheered as audience members held up Palestinian flags.
- The film was a late addition to Venice's competition lineup — added a month after July's initial announcement — and is the only documentary feature in this year's competition.
- The Guardian newspaper co-produced NAZA with James Wilson of JW Films, the same team behind Glazer's Oscar-winning "The Zone of Interest."
Why it matters: With 24 Israeli military intelligence sources speaking on the record, NAZA offers a rare insider evidentiary account that major rights organizations have only described externally — and The Guardian's institutional production backing positions it for wide distribution well beyond Venice. As the only documentary in this year's competition, it now stands as the festival's clearest artistic statement on Gaza.
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