Documentary Alleging 'Calculated Mass Killing' in Gaza Premieres at Venice Film Festival

The reception of a politically charged documentary is decided not in the editing room, but in the high-stakes environment of a major festival premiere, where global distributors and critics dictate its reach. On Thursday, that crucible was the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, which hosted the world premiere of NAZA, a new film by Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Competing for the festival's prestigious Golden Lion, the documentary brings anonymous testimonies from active Israeli military personnel to one of cinema's largest international stages.[1][2]

NAZA is the only documentary among the 21 films selected for the main competition in Venice this year. The title derives from a Hebrew military acronym used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the estimated number of civilians expected to be killed as collateral damage in a planned airstrike. According to the filmmakers, the project was shot at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv and focuses on the systems and protocols behind the civilian death toll in the ongoing war in Gaza.[1][2]

The documentary is anchored by interviews with 24 Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers who were involved in the surveillance and targeting processes. Securing their participation required extensive negotiation. “These are all confidential sources. Finding them wasn't easy. It took a long time before they agreed to speak,” Abraham noted, adding that the subjects had varying motivations for coming forward. Because of the severe legal and personal risks associated with discussing classified military operations, the subjects spoke on the condition of anonymity, with their appearances and voices digitally altered.[2][3]

Abraham and Szor previously collaborated with Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal on No Other Land, a documentary chronicling settler violence in the West Bank that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2025. For NAZA, the directors partnered with British producers Jim Wilson and Jonathan Glazer—the team behind the Oscar-winning Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest—as well as The Guardian newspaper, which served as a producer on the project. The directors noted that the film builds upon investigative reporting published between 2023 and 2025 by the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language publication Local Call, and The Guardian.[1][2]

The inclusion of NAZA marks the second consecutive year that a highly charged film about the Gaza conflict has competed at Venice. Last year, The Voice of Hind Rajab, a docu-drama depicting the final hours of a five-year-old Palestinian girl, won the festival's second prize. This year's lineup also featured Citizen Osama, a documentary about a Gaza photojournalist that has already been selected as the Palestinian entry for the 2027 Academy Awards.[1][2]

The documentary arrives amid intense international scrutiny of the war, which began following the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages being taken to Gaza. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has left approximately 73,500 Palestinians dead and 174,500 injured, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry cited in the coverage. The Israeli government has consistently rejected accusations of genocide, stating that its military operations target Hamas infrastructure and that the terror group deliberately embeds its operatives within civilian populations to maximize collateral damage.[1][2]

In their statements leading up to the premiere, Abraham and Szor framed the project as an internal reckoning. The directors expressed a sense of obligation to use their positions as Israeli journalists and filmmakers to examine the military systems for which their country is responsible. Szor acknowledged the uncertainty of how the film will be received domestically, stating, “It is hard to tell. Of course, it is very important for us that this film will be shown in Israel and the Israeli society will see it and have some response to it.”[2][3]

Following its debut on the Lido, the immediate question for NAZA is whether its explosive subject matter will secure widespread theatrical distribution or relegate it to the festival circuit. The Venice jury's verdict on the Golden Lion will be announced at the festival's conclusion on September 12, setting the trajectory for the documentary's international release and the inevitable political fallout that will accompany it.[1][2]