Gaza doc NAZA earns 24.5-minute standing ovation at Venice premiere

Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's documentary "NAZA" received a record-breaking standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. The 80-minute film examines how Israel has selected targets for air strikes in Gaza. According to CBC News, the ovation lasted around 24.5 minutes, while New Straits Times and Free Malaysia Today reported it as 25 minutes.

The documentary features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity about the systems used to identify targets in Gaza. The interviews were conducted in secrecy, with participants filmed at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv, and their faces and voices digitally altered to conceal their identities.

The film's premiere was attended by Jonathan Glazer, director of the Oscar-winning "The Zone of Interest" and an executive producer on "NAZA". Audience members held up Palestinian flags during the ovation, and the filmmakers appeared emotional during the applause. The National Business and The National UAE reported that the ovation surpassed the 23-minute, 50-second reception given to Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania's Gaza-set drama "The Voice of Hind Rajab" at Venice last year.

Brief written by urgent.news from CBC News, New Straits Times, The National Business, The National UAE, Free Malaysia Today — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.