Naza

Naza by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, is a revealing film about the systems behind the large-scale killing of civilians in Gaza.

On the rooftops of Tel Aviv, far from the war zone, Israeli military personnel hold secret conversations at night. Step by step, the film reveals how the military and intelligence services determine who becomes a target, which technologies and procedures are used, and how many civilian casualties an attack may cost. Dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of Palestinian civilians can be considered an acceptable price for eliminating a single target.

The film raises a painful question: how can the killing of innocent civilians become so normalised within a military apparatus that it is no longer seen as a moral or legal problem?

The title refers to Nezek Agavi, meaning ‘collateral damage’, the Israeli military term for the expected number of civilian casualties resulting from an airstrike. The term symbolises the dehumanisation deeply embedded in the system: civilian deaths are not a tragic side effect, but an anticipated and accepted part of military operations.

Naza premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize.

The documentary Naza will not be screened at Cinecitta on 6, 7 and 8 October. In doing so, we are responding to the filmmakers’ request to temporarily suspend screenings of the film around these dates.