NAZA Puts Gaza War Documentary in Venice’s Golden Lion Race

This is the context that gives NAZA its weight. No Other Land was not a one-off prestige documentary that could be filed away after awards season. Its makers are now bringing another film about state violence, civilian life and visual evidence into one of cinema’s most watched rooms.

DPA, via Yahoo, also reported that there was uproar at the Berlin awards ceremony after Abraham accused the Israeli government of “apartheid,” which prompted accusations of anti-Semitism. That is part of the public record around the filmmakers, and it helps explain why NAZA will not arrive as a neutral programming notice. It is a film people will argue about before they have seen it.

Photos: Martin Kraft · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source; César · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

The Film Tracks Civilian Death From Tel Aviv Rooftops

According to the festival’s synopsis quoted by Variety and DPA, NAZA was shot at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv and shows “the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film documents Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

The Hindu reported that the documentary draws on investigative reporting published between 2023 and 2025 by +972 Magazine, Local Call and The Guardian. The Hollywood Reporter also reported that the movie builds on reporting from The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call.

The title has a grim specificity. The Hollywood Reporter reported that, according to the filmmakers, NAZA is a military acronym used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike. DPA, via Yahoo, attributed the same explanation to The Guardian.

DPA also reported that, throughout the conflict, the Israeli military has insisted it was aiming only at terrorists and seeking to avoid civilian casualties. That sentence belongs in any honest account of the film’s subject because the documentary’s claim, as described in its synopsis, is severe.

A film festival cannot settle the facts of a war. What it can do is put a work in front of critics, distributors, programmers and peers, then let the film be judged as cinema and as an act of reporting. NAZA is being positioned to face both readings at once.

The Guardian, James Wilson and Jonathan Glazer Back the Film

NAZA is produced by The Guardian and James Wilson of JW Films, The Hindu and Variety reported. Jonathan Glazer is executive producer, according to both outlets.

The credits draw another line through recent politically charged cinema. The Hollywood Reporter described Wilson and Glazer as Oscar-winning Zone of Interest filmmakers. Variety reported that Wilson and Glazer worked together on The Zone of Interest, which won the Oscar for best international feature.

The Hindu reported that Wilson and Glazer previously worked together on The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, which won the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Venice Film Festival. The Hindu also reported that Ben Hania is serving on this year’s Venice jury, headed by president Maggie Gyllenhaal.

That connection gives Venice a visible thread between last year’s Gaza-centered prize winner and this year’s late Competition addition. The Voice of Hind Rajab dramatized the final hours of a Palestinian girl trapped in a car in Gaza, The Hindu reported. NAZA, by contrast, is described as an investigative documentary, with its gaze fixed on military systems and civilian casualties.

Venice and New York Give NAZA Two Major Fall Platforms

NAZA will not stop at Venice. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the New York Film Festival has added the film’s North American premiere to its main slate. NYFF runs from September 25 to October 12, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Dennis Lim, NYFF’s artistic director, called NAZA “an important investigative documentary” in a statement reported by The Hollywood Reporter. He said the film brings critical information to light and raises questions of complicity and accountability.

Festival language can get puffy fast. This case is plainer. Venice gives NAZA the Golden Lion race. New York gives it a major North American berth soon after. For a documentary about Gaza by two No Other Land directors, that means the fall festival circuit is treating the film as more than a late-breaking addition.

The practical result is that NAZA now has a high-profile path through two cinephile-heavy festivals before wider public arguments form around it. The film’s first major test comes September 10 in the Sala Grande.