{"id":919053,"date":"2026-10-03T12:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T12:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919053\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T12:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T12:36:14","slug":"indie-films-opening-oct-2-naza-starts-u-s-rollout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919053\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie Films Opening Oct. 2: ‘NAZA’ Starts U.S. Rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNAZA<\/a>, written and directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, has started its U.S. run, playing at the IFC Center in New York since Wednesday. That followed fast on a New York Film Festival screening<\/a> last weekend and a Special Jury Prize<\/a> at its Venice world premiere last month with a record 25-minute standing ovation<\/a> for the doc many have called devastating.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film was produced by The Guardian and James Wilson\u2019s JW Films, with his longtime collaborator Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) as executive producer. MTuckman Media is helping with U.S. bookings. As of noon Wednesday, when the run started, most shows already had been sold out through the weekend, with the doc eyeing more than $70k for its first five days. NAZA is set to expand to 60+ theaters in more than 30 markets next weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes off 32 reviews, see Deadline\u2019s here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018NAZA\u2019: What The Critics Are Saying About Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor\u2019s Israel-Gaza Documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tFrench sales company mk2 films handles rest-of-world sales<\/a> with deals in 56 markets. The doc opened great in Italy with \u20ac1.81 million ($2.1 million) and is moving into other territories today. In an unusual move, The Guardian plans to stream the doc internationally for free starting in six to eight weeks to make it as widely available as possible.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe setup is deceptively sparse. The film unspools at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv, where Abraham interviews a stream of 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers to recount details of the destruction of residential areas in Gaza that caused massive loss of life among Palestinian civilians. The officers are filmed in silhouette, their voices digitally altered.<\/p>\n

\n\tNAZA is an acronym used by Israel Defense Forces to signify collateral damage, specifically the degree of acceptable loss of civilian life incurred while trying to kill suspected Hamas militants. The film suggests the number is elastic, from several to a dozen to as high as 500 people who were deemed permissible collateral damage, according to Israeli military personnel interviewed in the doc.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018NAZA\u2019 Trailer: First Look At Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor\u2019s Much-Talked-About Gaza Documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIsrael has denied the claims in the film. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has also threatened to revoke the filmmakers\u2019 citizenship<\/a> and to pass legislation making it illegal to criticize the Israeli armed forces. Abraham and Szor attended Venice and NYFF but won\u2019t be appearing at opening Q&As. Reps said the pair is not currently either in the U.S. or in Israel.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe doc has no narration, no infographics, just testimonials, said Abraham. As the soldiers spoke, he pressed them at times but said his role was to listen and document, not scold, especially \u201cin light of the kind of reaction\u201d to the film \u2014 meaning the backlash.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s an investigative journalist who\u2019s partnered in recent years with reporters from The Guardian to cover the destruction in Gaza after Hamas\u2019 October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, where 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. The Palestinian death toll is said to surpasses 74,000, including many civilians.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Israel\u2019s Culture Minister Calls For Oscar-Winning Israeli Filmmakers Behind Gaza Doc \u2018NAZA\u2019 To Lose Their Citizenship<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAbraham noted during a Q&A at NYFF that much of the film overlaps with previous reporting and that atrocities in Gaza have been documented for years. But \u201cthey\u2019re allowed to continue in part because many people are denying them. Part of our hope is that by making this film, we will make that denial a little bit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSzor, the main cinematographer, said he chose Tel Aviv because it\u2019s a considered a liberal city but no one there talks about Gaza. \u201cEither they\u2019re justifying it, or there\u2019s just no place for it to even be spoken about,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we really wanted these words, these testimonies in Hebrew, from soldiers, from officers, be spoken against the background of a city like Tel Aviv.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAbraham and Szor were part of a film collective with Palestinian colleagues Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, behind another powerful doc, the Oscar-winning No Other Land<\/a> in 2024. That followed the destruction of the occupied West Bank\u2019s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance that develops between the Palestinian activist Adra and Abraham. It grossed $2.5 million worldwide.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOther specialty openings: <\/p>\n

\n\tKetchup Entertainment<\/a> of Coyote vs Acme fame is releasing Rolling Loud by Jeremy Garelick, a comedy set against the backdrop of the world\u2019s largest hip-hop festival, on 868 screens. Produced by Live Nation Studios and American High in collaboration with Rolling Loud. Owen Wilson plays an overprotective dad who sneaks his 13-year-old son (Christian Convery) into the festival. The film is coming off a smashing regional tour of 13 cities and colleges. Acts included: Swae Lee, DaBaby, Offset, A Bog Wit Da Hoodie and Young Thug, among many others.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tObscured Releasing presents Samuel Abrahams\u2019 absurdist comedy Lady at Regal Union Square in New York and Coral Gables Art Cinema in Miami, adding the Glendale and Monica Laemmles in LA next weekend. The film follows a lonely, self-obsessed aristocrat (Sian Clifford) who dupes a struggling, opportunistic director into filming her every move. While pursuing her artistic expression, Lady Isabella\u2019s life takes a surreal turn as she realizes if she\u2019s not in the spotlight, she might just disappear.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRue Dangeau debuts Victorian Gothic thriller S\u00e9ance starring Vivian Kerr with a one-week run at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles before widening to dates in San Francisco, Phoenix, Houston, Palm Springs and Sedona, with more cities to be announced. Scottie Thompson, Jilon VanOver and Connor Paolo also star. Over the course of one night, two couples confront the deficits in their marriages, the temptation of adultery, and the disturbing possibility their house is haunted by a recently deceased loved one. The feature is inspired by the August Strindberg play Creditors.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NAZA, written and directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, has started its U.S. run, playing at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,301988,316533,53273],"class_list":["post-919053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-naza","tag-rolling-loud-the-movie","tag-specialty-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}