{"id":648057,"date":"2026-10-16T09:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T09:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/648057\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T09:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T09:12:08","slug":"jonathan-glazer-says-israels-retaliation-over-naza-more-venal-than-anticipated-naza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/648057\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Glazer says Israel\u2019s retaliation over NAZA \u2018more venal\u2019 than anticipated | NAZA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The director Jonathan Glazer has called Israel\u2019s retaliation against NAZA\u2019s film-makers and the military figures interviewed in the award-winning documentary<\/a> \u201cmuch more venal\u201d than anticipated.<\/p>\n

Since the film\u2019s release, the Israeli government has denounced it and pursued those involved, announcing plans aimed at stripping citizenship<\/a> from people who \u201csmear\u201d Israeli soldiers; accused NAZA\u2019s co-directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, of treason; and ordered top legal and security officials to find and prosecute soldiers and officers interviewed in the documentary for causing \u201charm to Israel\u2019s diplomatic and security interests\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Guardian\u2019s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, at NAZA\u2019s UK premiere in London on Thursday night, Glazer, who is an executive producer on the film, said he was \u201cshocked into silence\u201d the first time he watched NAZA, which is produced by the Guardian and details Israel\u2019s mass killing of civilians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

He noted that it was \u201cclearly in dialogue\u201d with and \u201cdeals with very similar themes\u201d to The Zone of Interest, the 2023 historical drama he directed and that depicted the mundane daily lives of Nazi officers overseeing the extermination of Jews at Auschwitz.<\/p>\n

The Israeli government has promoted an online film project that mimics the style of NAZA<\/a> in an attempt to counter the film\u2019s findings. When asked whether he was surprised by the intense reaction of the Israeli government to NAZA, Glazer said some of it was expected but that, \u201cin my point of view, it was much more venal\u201d than anticipated.<\/p>\n

Yuval Abraham speaking at the panel event. Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Abraham said the film allows viewers to look at the \u201cmechanisms that allow human beings to do this to other human beings\u201d, and Szor said the idea to shoot footage looking inside Tel Aviv citizens\u2019 apartments was to focus on the \u201critual\u201d of people gathering around the TV to watch the \u201cnews and to see the absence or justification\u201d of the devastation happening in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NAZA is in UK cinemas and will be shown in more than 50 countries. As well as its global cinema releases, NAZA will be available free on the Guardian\u2019s website from late November. When the film opened in Italy last month, it surpassed the Marvel movie Avengers Endgame: Encore to open at No 1.<\/p>\n

The film contains 24 interviews with Israeli military insiders who detail how an AI-assisted apparatus of mass surveillance was activated during the Gaza<\/a> war, revealing the systems that were used to target Hamas operatives in the knowledge that large numbers of Palestinian civilians would also die.<\/p>\n

Various bodies, including the UN, Amnesty International, B\u2019Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, the latter two of which are Israeli-based, have said Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The film premiered at the Venice film festival, where it was met with a 25-minute standing ovation \u2013 a festival record. The documentary went on to win the special jury prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israeli government officials have attempted to discredit NAZA\u2019s content, while far-right activists have threatened to hunt down the directors.<\/p>\n

The Israel Defense Forces\u2019 chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, has said they will use \u201cevery tool at our disposal\u201d against the film, while the military has issued<\/a> a 10-page response to NAZA, which was based on interviews with more than 100 sources with knowledge of the military systems used in the war.<\/p>\n

A mural depicting Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, initially painted by an artist accusing the filmmakers of being \u2018traitors,\u2019 the text on the mural was subsequently modified by another artist to read \u2018heroes.\u2019 Photograph: Mostafa Alkharouf\/Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Demonstrators have gathered outside the home of Szor\u2019s parents, demanding that she face the death penalty, and a mural depicting the film-makers through the sights of a gun appeared in the Israeli city of Ashdod.<\/p>\n

Szor and Abraham addressed the backlash<\/a> to their documentary at a Q&A after its New York premiere. \u201cOur country is doing so much to hide these systems,\u201d Szor told the audience. \u201cIt\u2019s not a world that is open even to the Israeli public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Zone of Interest won the Oscar for best international film in 2024. Accepting the award, Glazer said he refuted his \u201cJewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people\u201d in Gaza and Israel, comments that led to backlash and an outpouring of support.<\/p>\n

He went on to say: \u201cAll our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say look what they did then, but rather look what we do now. Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst. It\u2019s shaped all of our past and present.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The director Jonathan Glazer has called Israel\u2019s retaliation against NAZA\u2019s film-makers and the military figures interviewed in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-648057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}