NAZA documentary reviews: critics hail Guardian film as 'tough to watch, impossible to ignore'
The Guardian-produced documentary NAZA, which details Israel's mass killing of civilians in Gaza, opened in UK cinemas this week to five-star and four-star reviews from critics worldwide and will screen in more than 50 countries.
NAZA documentary reviews: critics hail Guardian film as 'tough to watch, impossible to ignore'
NAZA documentary reviews have been arriving from critics around the world since the film reached UK cinemas this week, and nearly all of them reach for the same words: brilliant, harrowing, impossible to ignore. The documentary, produced by the Guardian and detailing Israel's mass killing of civilians in Gaza, will be shown in more than 50 countries.
What NAZA shows and where to see it
The film is built from 24 interviews with Israeli military insiders, who speak anonymously on the rooftops of Tel Aviv at night. Those insiders describe how an AI-assisted apparatus of mass surveillance was activated during the Gaza war, targeting Hamas operatives in the knowledge that large numbers of Palestinian civilians would also die.
For readers deciding how to see it:
- NAZA is now screening in UK cinemas.
- It will be shown in more than 50 countries.
- It will be available free on the Guardian's website from late November.
The five-star and four-star verdicts
In a five-star review, the Financial Times's Danny Leigh says that as a piece of cinema, "journalism and film-making brilliantly entwine". The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, awarding four stars, says the "anguish of Gaza is brought into pin-sharp focus".
The New York Times has made the film a "critic's choice", calling NAZA a "haunting" documentary that is "tough to watch, and impossible to ignore".
Praise from publications worldwide
The press response spans the UK, Europe, the Middle East and North America, with reviewers quoting phrases few films attract:
- The Times calls the film "hugely provocative and a disturbing account" of Israel's mass killing of civilians in Gaza.
- The Irish Times brands NAZA an "essential record of engineered nightmare".
- British Vogue calls it a "brilliant and harrowing film" with a "restrained, meticulous, bone-chilling depiction" of Gaza's progressive erasure, and says it "feels destined to become an enduring historical document, one which will and should be seen by generations to come".
- Time Out says the film "puts together a restrained, intelligent, articulate, precise and utterly damning case against Israel's actions in Gaza", calling it exemplary cinema, inarguable journalism and an indictment.
- The Los Angeles Times describes a "stone-cold frightening" film that "burns the conscience".
- New York magazine calls it "one of the most important films of our time".
- The Hollywood Reporter praises a "sober and thoroughly documented bombshell of an expose" that "leaves one with a deadening feeling".
- The Toronto Star says "NAZA is heartbreaking but essential viewing, questioning the systems that cause and quantify civilian death".
- El Mundo hails it as "the film of our time, a superb, electrifying, and devastating documentary" about a systematic model of annihilation of the Palestinian people.
- Le Monde says the film "has the effect of an uppercut that leaves the viewer stunned".
- Denmark's Soundvenue calls it a "soul-crushing testimony to the genocide in Gaza", in a world increasingly seeming like a dystopia.
- The UAE state-owned National calls NAZA a "sickeningly tough film to watch".
- A Haaretz editorial says the film is "trying to force Israelis to confront what they already know: that Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza has left a black" stain.
In Italy, where the film opened last month and topped the charts, Corriere della Sera notes that NAZA lasts "only 80 minutes, but no more is needed", describing the interviewees' scientific coldness in reconstructing how they destroy Gaza as unforgettable.
Festival debut and context named in the report
NAZA premiered at the Venice film festival, where it received a 25-minute standing ovation – a festival record – and went on to win the special jury prize.
The report frames the film's context with the finding that various bodies, including the UN, Amnesty International, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, have said Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The film will be available free on the Guardian's website from late November.
