‘NAZA’: Gaza War Documentary by ‘No Other Land’ Directors Set for Venice Premiere

A documentary examining the war in Gaza from the directors of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land will debut at the Venice Film Festival next month.

Festival organisers announced on Monday that “NAZA” will compete for the prestigious Golden Lion award at the 83rd edition of the festival.

According to the synopsis published on the festival’s website, the film explores “the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”

The documentary was directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two members of the directing team behind No Other Land, which won an Oscar and documents the efforts of Palestinian activists to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing villages in the occupied West Bank.

NAZA was produced by The Guardian and James Wilson of JW Films, while filmmaker Jonathan Glazer serves as executive producer. Wilson and Glazer previously collaborated on The Zone of Interest, the Oscar-winning film set in and around Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Guardian explained that the title “NAZA” refers to “an Israeli military acronym used euphemistically by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians that it expects will be killed in an airstrike”.

The documentary is scheduled to screen on September 10, with the directors, producers, Guardian journalists and the official delegation expected to be present.

Among the 21 films competing for the Golden Lion, NAZA is the only documentary in the competition.

Its Venice premiere comes against the backdrop of the continuing Gaza conflict, which followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

According to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, the attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, while 251 people were taken hostage and transported to Gaza.

Israel responded with a military offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which is run under Hamas authority. The United Nations regards the ministry’s figures as reliable.

Although a ceasefire took effect in October, negotiations aimed at securing a lasting end to the war have stalled. Israeli forces currently control nearly 70 percent of the Gaza Strip.

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