A new documentary about the ongoing conflict in Gaza earned a 24.5-minute ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere on Thursday, making it the longest-ever standing ovation at the event.
Naza directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, also known for the Oscar-winning documentary film No Other Land, grew teary-eyed during the applause while audience members held up Palestinian flags.
The film gives insight into Israeli airstrikes in the region, featuring testimonies from 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers about the attitude towards civilian casualties.
Naza, the title of the film, is an acronym used by Israeli intelligence to refer to civilian collateral damage, which means the number of civilians killed or expected to be killed in an airstrike.
open image in galleryThe subjects in the film detail the surveillance systems and remote bombing involved in the Israeli military’s operation.
“We just told these officers and soldiers, please describe to us what you did,” Abraham said in a news conference Thursday. “Of course there were other questions that arose but the principal question was a question of detail — sketch it for us, we want to know how it worked. And sometimes just asking the question, you get answers.”
The film builds on reporting between 2023 and 2025 published by the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and The Guardian.
“We felt that there is still some sort of importance to take those testimonies and put it in a film,” Szor said. “It’s different to hear, actually, the people who designed and operated those systems talk about it in front of a camera, and sketch it, show it.”
open image in gallery
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The film is produced by The Guardian and James Wilson (JW Films) and executive produced by Jonathan Glazer. Wilson and Glazer are the Oscar-winning team behind the film The Zone of Interest.
At last year’s festival, The Voice of Hind Rajab, about the death of a six-year-old Palestinian girl called Hind Rajab, who was killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza while she was waiting for aid, earned a 22-minute standing ovation. It held the record for the longest standing ovation before Naza.