NAZA premiered at Venice Film Festival 2026.
The documentary's Israeli directors have been denounced by Israeli Culture Minister.
Now, a petition signed by 1,500 industry figures including Israeli filmmakers has come out in support of the NAZA directors.
Israeli Filmmakers Back Petition In Solidarity With NAZA Directors
NAZA directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor received threats from Israeli culture minister Miki Zohar who accused them of treason.
Summary
Several major Israeli filmmakers have joined the 1,500 industry names that signed a petition launched on Monday professing its solidarity with NAZA directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who have been met with immense backlash from Israeli functionaries.
“In recent days, we have witnessed an unprecedented campaign of incitement and instigation against the film’s creators,” the petition states, which is signed by leading Israeli filmmakers including Ari Folman, Nadav Lapid, Orna Ben-Dor Niv, Hagai Levi and Shlomi Elkabetz. “And the distance between it and the incitement to violence and physical threat to their lives is shrinking.”
The 80-minute documentary garnered the special jury prize at this year’s Venice film festival, after receiving a 25-minute standing ovation – a festival record. On Sunday, Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar, slammed the directors, indicting them of being willing to “harm their homeland in order to receive applause from antisemites around the world”. Zohar called them vile and traitors.
An official logline for NAZA says the film shows "in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza". The doc, which was shot in secrecy at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, weaves interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers.
NAZA Directors Receive Industry Support
The petition adds: “We, filmmakers, call on all who are still fighting for freedom of expression and creation to join in expressing support and solidarity with Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham. The central role of art and journalism is to hold a mirror up to the society in which they exist, to create discourse and discussion without assumptions, even when the reality is difficult.”
Tricia Tuttle, director of the Berlin film festival, affirmed: “Artists must be free to critically examine the world. Films can provoke discussion, disagreement and criticism, but in a democratic society, the response to art must be dialogue and scrutiny, not intimidation or punishment by the state. Our team at the Berlinale stands with Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and all artists who exercise these rights.”
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NAZA will screen at the San Sebastián film festival next week.
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