Israeli Gaza Documentary "NAZA" Breaks Records with 24.5-Minute Venice Ovation
Israeli documentary "NAZA" by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Shor received a record 24.5-minute ovation at the Venice Film Festival, featuring testimonies from intelligence soldiers.
The documentary film "NAZA" by Israeli creators Yuval Abraham and Rachel Shor, directors of the Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land", premiered today (Thursday) in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival. Upon the screening's conclusion, the film was received with prolonged applause as Palestinian flags were waved in the hall. This marks the longest-ever standing ovation in Venice, breaking the 22-minute record set last year for "The Voice of Hind Rajab", which also dealt with the war in Gaza and the killing of a Palestinian girl by the IDF.
Behind the Lens of "NAZA"
The film, the only documentary among the 21 contenders for the Golden Lion this year, presents sharp criticism of IDF operations in the sector and the systems used for target selection during the war. The title is an acronym for the military term "collateral damage" in Hebrew, referring to the number of civilians expected to be harmed in a strike. The sound of the title also evokes the name of Gaza.
The mass killing of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza was a deliberate, calculated, and known-in-advance systemic act.
Testimonies from the Dark
The documentary centers on the testimonies of 24 soldiers and officers, including intelligence personnel involved in planning and operating the systems used in strikes. Their identities are concealed, their voices altered, and their interviews filmed at night in near-total darkness on rooftops in Tel Aviv. The creators emphasize that "NAZA" does not focus on isolated incidents, but rather exposes an entire systematic policy.
