Overview
- Filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor compiled rooftop interviews recorded between 2023 and 2025 with 24 current and former Israeli military and intelligence personnel who spoke on camera only with faces obscured and voices altered.
- Interviewees say an AI tool called Lavender is used to help identify targets and that the military used the shorthand NAZA, a Hebrew acronym for collateral damage, to count expected civilian deaths in strikes.
- NAZA won a Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, opened commercially in late September with strong audience demand and topped the Italian box office, and began limited U.S. screenings at the IFC Center in New York.
- Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have denounced the film, officials have threatened legal and security measures against the filmmakers, and the Israel Defense Forces have rejected the film’s core allegations while inquiries and protests continue.
- Critics praise the film’s urgency but note limits in independent corroboration, The Guardian will stream the documentary free in late November, and advocates warn the backlash could chill investigative reporting and whistleblowing while keeping international attention on Gaza.