‘NAZA’ Trailer Reveals Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s Hot-Button Doc

The trailer for the documentary "NAZA" was released on Friday, providing viewers with a look into Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's insightful film. The film's subtitle, "A Window Into Systems of Mass Killing," serves as a hint of its main theme. Shot at night on Tel Aviv rooftops, "NAZA" delves into the mechanics of Israel’s orchestrated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

The trailer states that the documentary includes interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers who were involved in the remote killing of Palestinian civilians.

After premiering at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, "NAZA" is set to make its North American debut at the New York Film Festival on Saturday. Following that, it will open at the IFC Center in New York City four days later, before expanding to Los Angeles and other U.S. cities on Oct. 9. The self-distribution model for the documentary means it will be free to stream on The Guardian's website post-international release.

Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar has threatened to strip Abraham and Szor of their citizenship, alleging they have "betrayed the state" with their follow-up to their Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land." In a joint statement, the filmmakers asserted their intent to "examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible."

Over the past three years, they spent time filming Israeli military personnel on rooftops in Tel Aviv, probing the deeper questions that have echoed through generations of conflict: how can people allow the total dehumanization of others? What does the inner workings of such a system look like? Many of the film's revelations were published in The Guardian in the months following the October 7th attacks, in collaboration with reporting partners +972 Magazine and Local Call.

The filmmakers hope their film will not only capture the spoken words but also the unspoken, the silence; it is up to all of us to break that silence.