NAZA: Abraham and Rachel Szor’s Venice Prizewinner Explores Gaza Conflict Through Revelatory Interviews With IDF Soldiers

September 25, 2026 by

Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s Venice Prizewinner Explores Gaza Conflict Through Revelatory Interviews With IDF Soldiers

The provocative documentary will soon go on an unprecedented global release rollout that will ultimately include free streaming.

NAZA
Courtesy MK2
British newspaper The Guardian, JW Films and French sales company MK2 have released the trailer for Naza the hot-button documentary about the war in Gaza, which won a special jury prize and earned the lengthiest standing ovation in the 83-year-history of the Venice International Film Festival.

The docu, which was shot at night on rooftops of Tel Aviv and explores the killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, next plays at the prestigious New York Film Festival on September 28.

“NAZA” is a slang term used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to refer to the estimated civilian casualties in Gaza. To target a single suspected Hamas operative in a drone strike, five or six NAZA are considered standard, and 20 represent the maximum before questions are raised.

An anonymous whistleblower interviewed atop a building, his face and voice digitally masked for fear of reprisal, describes one incident in which a bombing run with 500 NAZA was approved, flattening an entire neighborhood in order  to eliminate a single target. His voice quivers with shame and rage, and a growing sense of self-discovery, that he himself seems frightened by.

NAZA was directed by Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who are two of the four co-directors of the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.
Playing in Over 50 Countries Before Streaming for Free
NAZA has set a distribution rollout for U.S. theaters starting September 30 via an innovative plan that forgoes selling the film to a studio or independent distributor.

In an innovative form of promotion and release, NAZA will be screening in cinemas across the world starting September 28, having secured theatrical distribution via MK2 in 56 territories since its September 10 world premiere in Venice.

The U.S. rollout, which kicks off exclusively at the IFC Center in New York City, is “spearheaded by The Guardian and MK2, who have assembled a team of U.S. and international partners and consultants to bring the film to audiences as quickly as possible,” they said.

NAZA displays revelations that were first published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972, Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and The Guardian between 2023 and 2025.

“We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israeli filmmakers and journalists to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible. While filming members of Israel’s military on rooftops at night in Tel Aviv over the past three years, we found ourselves asking the very questions that were asked by our grandparents’ generation and throughout the 20th century: how does one group of people allow the total dehumanization of another? What do the inner workings of such a system look like? Many of the revelations in the film were published almost immediately as we learned of them, in the months following the October 7th attacks, by The Guardian (one of ‘NAZA’s’ producers), in collaboration with reporting partners +972 Magazine and Local Call. The film lets us explore something deeper than we could in our investigative journalism alone: not only the words being said but also those that are not said, the silence. It is up to all of us to break that silence.”
Crucial Timing of Release
The timing of the release of the hot-button documentary is crucial as the war-torn Israeli society is about to commemorate the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre and its long-lasting traumatic effects.
Moreover, the documentary will be shown all over the world just four weeks before Israel is holding its first elections since 2022, on October 27, in which, according to polls, Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s party is just only a few points behind the “Opposition Block” (Hagush), led by Gadi Eisenkot’s party.
Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter
Filed Under: BLOG