NAZA opens today in Milwaukee

NAZA will be screened Oct 23 – 29 at the Oriental Theatre, 2230 N. Farwell Ave., Milwaukee. Buy tickets here.

Award-winning documentary NAZA is “an important watch for people who care about the world today, regardless of the political or religious spectrum you’re on,” said Milwaukee Film Artistic Director Cara Ogburn, Ph.D., in an interview yesterday with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal.

NAZA opens today at the Oriental Theatre, 2230 N. Farwell, and runs through Thursday. 

The investigative documentary by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor examines the civilian casualties of Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the systems behind the killing of Palestinians. It features interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers who describe the use of artificial intelligence and automated surveillance in Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

NAZA directors Abraham and Szor also participated in the Palestinian-Israeli collective that directed No Other Land, the 2025 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature. It chronicled the systematic destruction and forced displacement of Masafer Yatta, a cluster of Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Both No Other Land and NAZA are the rare winners of a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israelis to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible,” wrote co-directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor in their Director’s note.

The title “NAZA” refers to an acronym used within the Israeli Defense Forces that means the number of civilian casualties deemed acceptable for every Hamas operative it eliminated, “‘Hamas operative’ meaning anyone Israel’s AI targeting systems identify as being in some way connected to Hamas,” Aaron Regunberg noted in a review in The New Republic.

“We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israeli filmmakers and journalists to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible,” Abraham and Szor write in their Director’s Note, available on the Milwaukee Film website. Interviewing members of the Israeli military for the past three years, “we found ourselves asking the very questions that were asked by our grandparents’ generation and throughout the 20th century: how does one group of people allow the total dehumanization of another?”

Today’s showings are at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; Saturday at 6:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 3:45 p.m. and 6:15 p.m., Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Thursday at 7:15 p.m. Former Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is the Film Sponsor. For tickets and more information, visit mkefilm.org.

Joining a worldwide conversation

At its Sept. 10 premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, it received a record-breaking, 25-minute standing ovation, Variety reported. Since then, it won numerous prizes, including the Audience Award for “Best European Film” at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Critics Prize at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. 

It is a New York Times’ “Critic’s Pick,” a special label the Times gives to films the paper’s editors and critics believe is “especially noteworthy, insightful or representative of the cultural conversation of the time.” Its review says, “The new documentary NAZA is tough to watch, and impossible to ignore.”

Deciding to screen NAZA “is participating in something larger than the (usual) individual film selections we make,” Ogburn said. “Our audience’s response to No Other Land, the world’s response to No Other Land has put these filmmakers on the map. The number of festivals, the critical response and the audience response NAZA has received so far really speaks for itself. Audiences are looking for stories like this, that do more than give us headlines and statistics, stories that open up larger, complicated conversations, and allow individuals to speak from their own experience.

“This film is in conversation with films our audiences have responded to in the past—National Bird (a 2016 documentary that investigates the U.S. military’s drone warfare program), Citizenfour (a 2014 documentary about whistleblower Edward Snowden revealing the U.S. government’s massive surveillance programs), and others. 

“NAZA is speaking to the context of contemporary warfare and the experiences of those who are participating in it,” Ogburn said. “I was able to see it screened for the press and industry at the Toronto International Film Festival and I can say the critical enthusiasm is justified,” she added. “It is strong and powerful, more than any synopsis of the film can show.

“But I don’t have to tell you the film is good, so many other people have said it. Many critics say this is the most important film of the year.”

“NAZA” refers to an acronym used within the Israeli Defense Forces that means “civilian casualties.” 

Pushback, threats and accusations of treason

With NAZA’s widespread acclaim, “a groundswell of critics has risen nationally and globally,” Ogburn answered when asked about the pushback the film has received. “We are receiving online comments like everyone is.”

In response to the film, Israel’s military published a document that rejected the film’s allegations about its conduct in Gaza. The Israeli government has threatened to strip the NAZA directors of their citizenship and prosecute them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly cited Abraham and Szor when announcing proposed legislation to strip the citizenship of individuals who “defame Israeli soldiers abroad,” Reuters reported. 

Some Israeli Americans and Jewish community members have protested outside theaters showing NAZA, including its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival and showings in Los Angeles, San Francisco and The Hamptons, according to news reports. 

While Milwaukee Film did feel some of the backlash in online comments, “we also received words of support and people are purchasing tickets,” said Ogburn. “Protesting is within one’s right and is appropriate for free speech. But no one is being forced to watch a film. I hope that Milwaukee is allowing the expression of viewpoints and coming to your own decision.

“It was just announced that Neon, a U.S. distributor of significant repute, has come on board. With that support, I expect NAZA will be presented in theaters nationwide. The audience response is there.”

The historic Oriental Theatre has been home to Milwaukee Film for seventeen years.