Oscar-winning 'No Other Land' team returns with Gaza documentary 'NAZA'

The filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land" have returned with a new film, "NAZA," which premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.

Announced on August 24 as a late addition to the festival line-up, "NAZA" is the only documentary in competition at Venice this year. It is co-directed by Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham, two of the filmmakers behind "No Other Land," the 2025 Academy Award winner about Palestinian activists resisting demolition of their communities by the Israeli military.

Szor said the earlier film's Oscar success, while significant for co-directors Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, was followed by a worsening situation on the ground. She said the team had initially not asked many questions of the people willing to speak on camera, and came to see a reason to record their accounts and release them as a film.

Shot at night on Tel Aviv rooftops, "NAZA" centres on the killings of Palestinian civilians. It was produced by The Guardian and the filmmakers behind the 2023 film "The Zone of Interest," and builds on reporting published between 2023 and 2025 by the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language publication Local Call and The Guardian.

Abraham said Israeli intelligence officers were aware of exactly who was being targeted during raids, a subject the documentary explores. He described a policy of listening inside houses before they were bombed, including through spyware, and said officers recount hearing a baby crying, a family present, a television playing or a man speaking to his wife before strikes went ahead.

Abraham argued that the facts of the conflict should have been clear from statements by Israeli leaders from late 2023, from the accounts of Palestinians and from journalists documenting the destruction of villages, houses and cities. He said the film seeks to add insider testimony in order to make denial of what is happening harder.

He also questioned the framing of the conflict as an Israel-Hamas war, pointing to testimony in the film from Israeli soldiers, including one who described being tasked with destroying an entire city and shooting Palestinians who tried to return to their homes. Abraham said the film presents the civilian deaths as systemic rather than accidental.