Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s NAZA has landed a sensational 25-minute ovation following its world premiere in competition this evening at the Venice Film Festival.
The Israeli directors looked solemn as applause erupted for their documentary exposing the calculated targeting of civilians in Gaza in missile strikes by Israeli military through the testimony of intelligence personnel and soldiers involved in the killing.
The 25-minute ovation sets a new record for any movie at a major festival, surpassing the near 24 minutes scored by The Voice Of Hind Rajab at last year’s Venice festival and the 22 minutes scored by Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. It’s comfortably the longest ovation at this year’s Venice.
Fittingly, The Voice of Hind Rajab director Kaouther Ben Hania, who is on the jury this year, and its producer Nadim Cheikhrouha were both in the room.
The directors were joined by NAZA producer James Wilson (JW Films), who also took credits on The Voice of Hind Rajab, and executive producer Jonathan Glazer. Wilson and Glazer are also the Oscar-winning team behind The Zone of Interest.
As the lights went up members of the audience started unfurling Palestinian flags as well as one or two Lebanese flags. It seemed at one point that security guards were going to force the flag-holders to put them away but appeared to think better of it.
The Palestinian flag has been a flashpoint at the festival this year amid calls for it to be included in flags flying from the Palazzo del Cinema in recognition of Palestinian directors in the selection. Festival director Alberto Barbera has said parent body the Venice Biennale is prevented from flying the flag because Palestine is not officially recognized as a state by Italy.
Barbera was present at Thursday night’s premiere and joined in the ovation as well as warmly embracing both directors.
The record applause comes after the film received very strong early notices from critics. You can read them here.
Based on interviews with 24 Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers, the documentary exposes the AI, phone surveillance and crude points-based systems deployed by the Israeli military in Gaza to decide targets, Hamas-related or otherwise, and then take them out in their homes regardless of whether children and other family members are likely to be killed in the strike as well.
It follows and builds on Abraham and Szor’s No Other Land, winner of the Best Documentary Academy Award in 2025, co-directed with Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, documenting Israeli army-backed efforts to erase the West Bank Palestinian villages of Masafer Yatta, while painting a wider picture of Israeli occupation.
The title NAZA is taken from the Israeli military’s Hebrew acronym to describe the number of civilians that could die when tallying up an estimated death-toll ahead of a strike.
“Our film is showing that the basic targeting unit of the Israeli targeting systems is a family home in Gaza,” Abraham told Deadline ahead of the world premiere.
“That’s how it operates. Every building in Gaza, every home in Gaza has a number. The system is designed to locate targets. When they are in civilian spaces, when they go back home, that is one of, for me, one of the most striking revelations of the film. A revelation, of course, that I think should have been known to people by the fact that they should have listened to Palestinians in Gaza who are saying it. But to hear it from the inside for me was quite striking.”
NAZA is produced by Guardian Documentaries with JW Films in association with Placeholder Films and Unseen Hand. Mk2 is handling sales on the title.
Andreas Wiseman contributed to this report.
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