NAZA, a documentary about the Israeli attacks on Gaza, is currently beating Avengers Endgame: Encore at the Italian box office ahead of a global launch.
Created by Oscar-winners Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, NAZA features interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers about how their country’s armed forces are using AI and automated surveillance in military targeting systems during the ongoing war in Gaza. The title comes from a military acronym used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians that it expects will be killed in an airstrike.
“We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israelis to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible,” explained Abraham and Szor.
“While filming over the past three years, we found ourselves asking the very questions that were asked by our grandparents’ generation and throughout the 20th century: how does one group of people allow the total dehumanisation of another? What do the inner workings of such a system look like?”
NAZA premiered in Italian cinemas on Monday (September 28) and by Tuesday, had taken €1.1million at the box office. Avengers Endgame: Encore, a rerelease of the 2019 blockbuster featuring new scenes that tie the film to the upcoming Doomsday, made €356,000 over the same period (via The Guardian).
NAZA was originally booked for a three-day theatrical run but that’s now been extended. “As long as theatres want to show it, NAZA will continue to be screened,” said the boss of the documentary’s Italian distributor.
The documentary, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice film festival earlier this month, will be released in more than 50 territories in the coming weeks before being made free-to-watch on The Guardian’s website in mid-November. According to Picturehouse Cinemas, NAZA will premiere in the UK on October 15.
“Our country is doing so much to hide these systems,” Szor told the audience at the post-screening Q&A in New York over the weekend. “These crimes that you saw are ongoing. They’re ongoing because it’s what our country is doing, and because of what your country is supporting and funding,” added Abraham.
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