Israeli backlash against the makers

The Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu has moved against the film's makers since its premiere. It demanded that the Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, be stripped of their citizenship. The demands have since gone further: the 24 former soldiers and officers of the military and intelligence services who testify anonymously in the film are to be prosecuted. In a letter to the attorney general, Netanyahu called for urgent steps to uncover the identity of everyone involved in the film or appearing in it. The Israeli army has published ten pages rejecting the documentary's content and maintains that humans remain responsible for deciding on strikes.

What the film alleges

Naza takes its title from the military and intelligence acronym used to estimate collateral damage before each strike, according to the documentary. The directors spent more than two years on the investigation and gathered testimony from 24 anonymous people who took part, directly or indirectly, in the campaign against Gaza. The film shows how targets are assessed before a strike, relying on data and artificial intelligence. The directors argue that this process dehumanises Palestinians and makes the killing of civilians easier to justify. The documentary was shot at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it was the only documentary in competition and won the special jury prize after a 25-minute ovation. Abraham was among the four directors of No Other Land, which won the 2025 Oscar for best documentary.

Box office in France

Distributor mk2 reported 40,000 admissions on Monday, 12 October, an average of 200 viewers per screening, which made the film the most-watched in French cinemas that day. The documentary received an exceptional allowance of 500 screenings across Monday and Tuesday before a free online release planned for late November. Demand led mk2 to add screenings, and every session at its Beaubourg cinema in Paris was sold out on Tuesday. Eric Marti, managing director of Rentrak France, which analyses box office results, called the opening a fine result but put the figure in perspective.

“After all, 40,000 admissions is not exceptional.”

Marti compared the special screening permit with the one granted to Kaizen, a film by YouTuber Inoxtag that drew more than 300,000 viewers in one day in September 2024 before going free on YouTube.

Italy and the extended run

Distributed by I Wonder, the film opened in Italian cinemas on 28 September. It was initially scheduled to stay only from 28 to 30 September, but audience response led distributors and exhibitors to extend the run. Three weeks after release it still held second place in the Cinetel chart, with 4,608,778 euros and 603,670 viewers in total. La Repubblica reports that it has become the third most-watched documentary ever in Italian cinemas. These figures are cumulative, and the film shares the podium with two titles that opened on 8 October, the horror film È mammina and the drama L'estranea.

What happens next

No article reports a decision yet on the citizenship demand or on the prosecutions Netanyahu has requested. The French run is limited to two days of screenings, with free streaming scheduled for late November. Italian box office figures continue to accumulate as the film stays in cinemas.