Venice Prize-Winner ‘NAZA’ Brings Explosive Gaza Exposé to U.S. Theaters – Specialty Preview

NAZA, written and directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, has started its U.S. run, playing at the IFC Center in New York since Wednesday. That followed fast on a New York Film Festival screening last weekend and a Special Jury Prize at its Venice world premiere last month with a record 25-minute standing ovation for the doc many have called devastating.

The film was produced by The Guardian and James Wilson’s JW Films with his longtime collaborator Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) as executive producer. MTuckman Media is helping with U.S. bookings. As of noon on Wednesday when the run started, most shows had already been sold out through the weekend with the doc eyeing more than $70k for its first five days. NAZA is set to expand to 60+ theaters in over 30 markets next weekend.

It’s sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes off 32 reviews, see Deadline’s here.

French sales company mk2 films handles rest of world sales with deals in 56 markets. The doc opened great in Italy with €1.81 million ($2.1 million) and is moving into other territories today. In an unusual move, The Guardian plans to stream the doc internationally for free starting in six to eight weeks to make it as widely available as possible.

The set up is deceptively sparse. The film unspools at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv where Abraham interviews a stream of 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers to recount details of the destruction of residential areas in Gaza that caused massive loss of life among Palestinian civilians. The officers are filmed in silhouette, voices digitally altered.

NAZA is an acronym used by Israel Defense Forces to signify collateral damage, specifically the degree of acceptable loss of civilian life incurred while trying to kill suspected Hamas militants. The film suggests the number is elastic, from several, to a dozen, to as high as 500 people who were deemed permissible collateral damage, according to Israeli military personnel interviewed in the doc.

Israel has denied the claims in the film. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has also threatened to revoke the filmmakers’ citizenship and to pass legislation making it illegal to criticize the armed forces. Abraham and Szor attended Venice and NYFF but won’t be appearing at opening Q&As. Reps said the pair is not currently either in the U.S. or in Israel.

The doc has no narration, no infographics, just testimonials, said Abraham. As the soldiers spoke, he pressed them at times, but said his role was to listen and document, not scold, especially “in light of the kind of reaction” to the film — meaning the backlash.

He’s an investigative journalist who’s partnered in recent years with reporters from The Guardian to cover the destruction in Gaza after Hamas’ violent attack Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, where 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. The Palestinian death toll is said to surpasses 74,000, including many civilians.

Abraham noted during a Q&A at NYFF that much of the film overlaps with previous reporting and that atrocities in Gaza have been documented for years. But “they’re allowed to continue in part because many people are denying them. Part of our hope is that by making this film, we will make that denial a little bit harder.”

Szor, the main cinematographer, said chose Tel Aviv because it’s a considered a liberal city but no one talks about Gaza. “Either they’re justifying it, or there’s just no place for it to even be spoken about. So we really wanted these words, these testimonies in Hebrew, from soldiers, from officers, be spoken against the background of a city like Tel Aviv.”

Abraham and Szor were part of a film collective with Palestinian colleagues Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, behind another powerful doc, the Oscar-winning No Other Land in 2024. That followed the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Adra and Abraham. It grossed $2.5 million worldwide.

Other specialty openings: Ketchup Entertainment (of Coyote vs Acme) face, is releasing Rolling Loud by Jeremy Garelick, a comedy set against the backdrop of the world’s largest Hip-Hop festival, on 868 screens. Produced by Live Nation Studios and American High in collaboration with Rolling Loud. Owen Wilson plays an overprotective dad who sneaks his 13-year-old son (Christian Convery) into the world’s biggest hip-hop festival. The film is coming off a smashing regional tour of 13 cities and colleges. Acts included: Swae Lee, DaBaby, Offset, A Bog Wit Da Hoodie, and Young Thug among many others.

Obscured Releasing presents Samuel Abrahams’ absurdist comedy Lady at Regal Union Square in New York and Coral Gables Art Cinema in Miami, adding the Glendale and Monica Laemmles in LA next weekend. The film follows a lonely, self-obsessed aristocrat (Sian Clifford) who dupes a struggling, opportunistic director into filming her every move. While pursuing her artistic expression, Lady Isabella’s life takes a surreal turn as she realizes if she’s not in the spotlight, she might just disappear.

Rue Dangeau debuts Victorian Gothic thriller Séance starring Vivian Kerr with a one-week run at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles before widening to dates in San Francisco, Phoenix, Houston, Palm Springs and Sedona, with more cities to be announced. Scottie Thompson, Jilon VanOver and Connor Paolo also star. Over the course of one night, two couples confront the deficits in their marriages, the temptation of adultery, and the disturbing possibility their house is haunted by a recently deceased loved one. The feature is inspired by the August Strindberg play Creditors.