Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, where it also received a record-breaking 25-minute standing ovation, NAZA is an undeniably powerful and provocative documentary. Judging by the backlash the filmmakers have already endured in Israel, it’s also one of the most contentious, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling the film “a false, misleading, and biased narrative” and the military issuing a 10-page response to NAZA.
At its heart are troubling allegations about the use of AI-guided military systems in Gaza and their role in civilian deaths, explored through interviews with individuals who claim to have been involved in their development and operation.
Filmed entirely on rooftops at night, overlooking the bright lights of Tel Aviv, the film sees various people interviewed anonymously. Appearances and voices have been changed to protect sources, a caption explains at the outset ("If I don’t hide my identity, Israel will put me in jail," remarks one interviewee). Shrouded in secrecy, on some level, NAZA shares DNA with Laura Poitras's documentary Citizenfour, which featured NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden spilling the beans.
The word ‘NAZA’ itself is swiftly explained: what the film describes as Israeli military code for collateral damage. ‘15 NAZA’, for example, refers to 15 dead civilians. And those interviewed do not hold back, especially about the collective feelings towards the October 7 attacks led by Hamas terrorists on innocent Israelis. Retaliation was key. “We said we need to erase Gaza…they deserve it,” shrugs one operative, offering a deeply unsettling account of the attitudes he says existed within the Israeli intelligence services.
Early on, the documentary describes an AI-powered system that allegedly tracks Hamas operatives to their homes, via cellular technology, recommending real-time targets for military strikes. According to the film, the software has a 15 per cent error rate, a claim with potentially devastating implications for civilians.
"Inside I felt uncomfortable," admits one of the developers, before noting that if he hadn’t done it, someone else would’ve stepped in. Among the most distressing testimonies is an account of young girls reportedly killed in a bombing when their father was not present, with their screams described by those involved in the operation.
Comparisons are made to video games, and there’s even a brief clip of Eye in the Sky, Gavin Hood’s 2015 drama starring Dame Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul about drone warfare. The film portrays a military decision-making process in which the deaths of civilians can appear secondary to the pursuit of Hamas targets.
One interviewee claims that a command approved the potential killing of 500 people in pursuit of a single target. It is a shocking allegation, and one that demands scrutiny as well as a visceral response. The more you hear, the more sickening it becomes.
View oEmbed on the source websiteThe film's reliance on anonymous testimony is both understandable, given the apparent risks faced by its contributors, and an important limitation. Viewers are being asked to trust accounts whose identities and credentials they cannot independently assess, and the documentary's conclusions deserve to be considered with that in mind.
Nevertheless, the filmmakers have an impressive pedigree. Produced by the documentary arm of Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, the film also credits James Wilson and Jonathan Glazer, producer and director, respectively, of the Oscar-winning Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest. At the helm are the no less acclaimed Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham, two of the four co-directors of No Other Land, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2025.
Here, Szor and Abraham briefly sketch out the history of the region, explaining how in the 1900s, Tel Aviv "rose from the sand" and how residents were uprooted from nearby villages. The filmmakers argue that this process of displacement and destruction has continued into the present conflict, presenting accounts of houses being systematically burnt down (one, they claim, was erased in eight minutes) in what is described as the ‘Annihilation Zone’. The ones that can’t evacuate? “Good luck to them,” suggests one speaker.
The documentary also draws comparisons with the Holocaust, a particularly provocative choice that will undoubtedly trouble some viewers and which raises questions about how historical parallels are employed to make its case.
Many of the accounts presented are horrifying, from descriptions of dogs eating dead bodies to allegations of snipers shooting near-starved people as they run towards food distribution sites. While some of the interviewees hint at remorse, many do not. "We’re completing the mission,” says one source, in testimony that the filmmakers present as evidence of a deeply troubling military culture. "Only together we will win" reads one billboard.
NAZA ultimately presents a devastating indictment of the conduct of the war in Gaza. It is an impassioned and frequently harrowing film and its determined point of view means that viewers must ultimately judge for themselves how persuasive its conclusions are.
NAZA is released in UK cinemas on Friday 16 October 2026.
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