NAZA | Preview

At night, on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, away from official messages and cameras, former and current members of Israeli military structures talk about the systems they themselves co-created and operated. Their testimonies reveal the decision-making mechanisms leading to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip — from procedures and technology to the way in which responsibility for human lives is distributed among people, data and algorithms.

Behind the film are Yuval Abraham, a filmmaker and investigative journalist, and Rachel Szor, a director and cinematographer. Both are among the four creators of “No Other Land”, one of the most high-profile documentaries of recent years, awarded the Oscar for Best Feature Documentary in 2025.

“NAZA” grows out of more than three years of journalistic and investigative work. Many of the findings that the filmmakers arrived at while working on the film were published on an ongoing basis by The Guardian, in collaboration with Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972 and Local Call. “The Guardian” is also one of the producers of the film, which highlights its unique combination of documentary cinema with investigative journalism.

The film is executive produced by Jonathan Glazer, who won an Oscar for “Zone of Interest.” Glazer's presence at “NAZA” creates additional context for the film, which, like “Zone of Interest,” looks at the mechanisms of violence from the perspective of people operating inside the system, while its victims remain largely out of the frame.

In “NAZA,” Abraham and Szor draw attention to the people inside the Israeli military system and try to understand not only the consequences of the war, but also the mechanisms that make it possible to carry it out. The film is based on interviews with 24 Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers, whose testimonies make up a picture of a system in which decisions about the lives of civilians are inscribed in military and technological procedures.

The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize. The international press drew attention to the uncompromising nature of the film and the strength of the testimonies of those speaking from within the system.

It is a harrowing documentary about war seen not from the battlefield, but from the places where decisions are made. About technology, responsibility and the limits of obedience. About what happens when violence is turned into a procedure and decisions about human life become part of the system.