The filmmakers behind NAZA are self-distributing the Venice special jury prize-winning documentary and have scheduled a US theatrical roll-out starting at the end of September.
The film will open on September 30 exclusively at IFC Center in New York City and expand to Los Angeles and other key markets on October 9, before receiving a nationwide roll-out in the following weeks.
Israelis Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor – two of the four co-directors on the 2025 Oscar-winning feature documentary No Other Land – co-directed NAZA, which is produced by The Guardian and James Wilson of JW Films, with Jonathan Glazer serving as executive producer.
The Guardian and international sales agent mk2 are spearheading the US release and are working with international partners and consultants. Further international distribution plans are expected to be announced in the coming days.
NAZA will receive its North American Premiere at New York Film Festival on September 26. It comprises interviews shot over the past three years with 24 Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers on the rooftops of Tel Aviv at night. The participants bear witness to the killing of Palestinians, including civilians, in their homes and apartments in Gaza. “Naza “is Israeli military slang for collateral deaths in airstrikes.
Abraham and Szor have come under attack following the film’s premiere in Venice. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will look to change the law so that people who “smear” Israeli soldiers can be stripped of their citizenship. Culture minister Miki Zohar has accused the filmmakers of treason.
The co-directors said, “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 […] 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.”
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