Gaza documentary NAZA tops Italian box office
Shafaq News- Rome
NAZA, a documentary about Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza made by Israeli filmmakers, opened at No. 1 at the Italian box office this week, ahead of a re-release of "Avengers: Endgame," according to Italian box office tracker Cinetel.
The film took 451,872 euros (about $510K) from 60,467 admissions on its opening day, Monday, more than double the 179,612 euros earned that day by the "Avengers" re-release. By Tuesday, its total had reached 1.1 million euros from more than 146,000 admissions, Cinetel said.
NAZA was first booked as a three-day event in 515 Italian cinemas, many of them sold out. Its Italian distributor has since extended the run, saying screenings will continue as long as cinemas want to show the film.
NAZA is directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the co-directors of "No Other Land," which won the 2025 Academy Award for Best Documentary, and produced by Britain's Guardian newspaper. The film draws on testimony from 24 anonymous Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers who describe AI-assisted surveillance and targeting systems used during the war in Gaza. They allege that strikes were approved despite expected civilian deaths.
The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 12 and is set for release in more than 50 territories over the coming weeks, before being made available free on The Guardian’s website in late November.
Two days after the Venice award, Israeli military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir instructed the military advocate general to examine possible legal action over the film. He called it "a deliberate attempt to directly undermine the legitimacy of the Israeli military and the State of Israel," and accused the filmmakers of adopting narratives promoted by what he called "Israel haters."
Zamir also ordered an information security review to identify who may have leaked what the military described as classified material used in the film, according to Israeli media. He set up a team of Israeli and international experts to respond to what he called false allegations against the army. The decisions followed an urgent meeting with senior commanders at the Kirya, the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, the reports said.
In a detailed rebuttal issued on Thursday, the military said the documentary relies on anonymous, unverifiable testimony from personnel who described only the early stages of a much longer targeting process. It also said the filmmakers did not share their allegations with the military before release.
