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Prominent Israeli filmmakers are among 1,500 industry names that signed a petition launched on Monday expressing solidarity with “NAZA” directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who have faced backlash from authorities
at home after the hot-button documentary premiered at Venice Film Festival last week.
“In recent days, we have witnessed an unprecedented campaign of incitement and instigation against the film’s creators,” the petition says, which is signed by Israeli filmmakers including Ari Folman, Nadav Lapid, Orna Ben-Dor Niv, Hagai Levi and Shlomi Elkabetz. “And the distance between it and the incitement to violence and physical threat to their lives is shrinking.”
It adds: “We, filmmakers, call on all who are still fighting for freedom of expression and creation to join in expressing support and solidarity with Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham. The central role of art and journalism is to hold a mirror up to the society in which they exist, to create discourse and discussion without assumptions, even when the reality is difficult.”
Details of the petition, which first surfaced in Israeli media reports, were confirmed to Variety by the international publicist for “NAZA.”
“NAZA” shows “in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” according to its official synopsis. The doc, which was shot in secrecy at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, features revelatory interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers.
The allegations in the film, which include the use of artificial intelligence to identify potential Hamas targets and bomb their homes in Gaza knowing that entire families are inside, have been denied by an Israeli military official, who recently spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity pending a formal statement from the army.
After “NAZA’s” Venice premiere, where it won the special jury prize and earned a record-breaking 24.5-minute ovation, Israel’s culture minister Miki Zohar threatened to revoke the citizenships of its co-directors, who are both Israeli. On Monday, Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly instructed the military’s top legal official to examine legal action against the film claiming it “defamed the military.”
Though Variety was not immediately able to confirm that the “NAZA” directors have returned to Israel, they said in an interview at Venice that they intended to do so, regardless of the difficulties they may face.
“We live there. Our lives are there, our families are there, our friends are there,” Abraham said, adding: “There is a political solution and good life for Palestinians and Israelis. That’s what motivates us to make this film and what we hope to be able to continue to do.”
