James Wilson<\/a> said was at their request, in part to allow them to finish the anonymization of their subjects.<\/p>\n Keeping the focus on the victims, not the subjects <\/p>\n
The film doesn\u2019t dwell on what motivated their subjects to speak. Abraham noted that some expressed remorse, some didn\u2019t; some deliberately spoke in Hebrew, some spoke out of indifference and pride. The filmmakers and producers were inspired by \u201cThe Zone of Interest\u201d filmmaker Jonathan Glazer\u2019s note that in his film the victims are out of the frame, but never out of mind. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt that by focusing too much on these feelings of remorse or guilt that exist, we would be taking away from the core of the film,\u201d Abraham said. \u201cAnd the core of the film is a system of killing that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza \u2014 estimates say the real number is much higher \u2014 the way it worked and the way the world allowed it to happen. This is the heart of what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson also spoke about the antisemitism accusations that are sometimes thrown at projects critiquing the actions of the Israeli government. <\/p>\n
\u201cI myself actually don\u2019t think there are any connections with Judaism or Jewishness and the policies of the Israeli government,\u201d Wilson said. <\/p>\n
Bearing witness, from \u2018No Other Land\u2019 to \u2018NAZA\u2019 <\/p>\n
Abraham and Szor were two of the four directors of the 2025 best documentary winner \u201cNo Other Land,\u201d the story of Palestinian activists fighting to protect their communities from demolition by the Israeli military. A collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, it was made between 2019 and 2023, wrapping production days before Hamas launched its deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
On that day, Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 as hostages. In Israel\u2019s ensuing offensive, more than 73,422 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe killing of civilians in Gaza is ongoing,\u201d Abraham said. \u201cJust this week while we were at the festival there was a seven-year-old girl killed with her father in their car \u2026 what we are showing is something that is very much ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our film is showing that this is not some mistake. It\u2019s not an accident. It\u2019s something very, very systemic,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd this should have been apparent to everyone, I think, from the start. But we are showing it from the inside, with insider testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ongoing conflict is top of mind at the Venice Film Festival <\/p>\n
The areas Israel controls in Gaza have been mostly destroyed and depopulated. Most of the territory\u2019s 2 million Palestinians are in areas that remain under Hamas control.<\/p>\n
Israel has continued striking Gaza, saying it\u2019s targeting Hamas and its infrastructure. Israel blames Hamas for the heavy civilian casualties in Gaza, saying the militant group operates in residential areas and uses civilians as human shields. <\/p>\n
The military has acknowledged using artificial intelligence to help identify targets, but maintains no strike is carried out without human involvement. \u201cWhen it comes to \u2018pressing the red button,\u2019 only a person can do it,\u201d said an Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity pending a formal statement from the army.<\/p>\n
The war was top of mind at last year\u2019s festival as well, where thousands gathered for a large pro-Palestinian protest in hopes of redirecting the spotlight from the movie stars to the real world. The subject was also prominent in the program: Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab,\u201d about the death of a 6-year-old girl attempting to flee Gaza City with her family, won the festival\u2019s Silver Lion award.<\/p>\n
Ben Hania is part of the Maggie Gyllenhaal-led jury that will be selecting the award winners at the festival. Winners will be announced on Sept. 12.<\/p>\n
__<\/p>\n
Louise Dixon contributed to this report from Venice, Italy.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
For ongoing coverage of the 2026 Venice Film Festival, visit: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/venice-film-festival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-766426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}