When the Rooftops Speak: A Film That Confronts Humanity with a Question
On the rooftops of Tel Aviv, in the dark of night, Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers sat in front of a camera and spoke.
This is the scene on which the film “NAZA” is built, a documentary that gathers the testimonies of 24 Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers and draws on press investigations published between 2023 and 2025.
The title itself carries the story. It comes from the Hebrew acronym for “Nezek Agavi,” the military term for “collateral damage,” which intelligence services use to refer to the number of civilian deaths expected in an airstrike.
In other words, the film begins with the very term that turns human beings into a number in an operational file.
The film was made by two Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who won an Oscar for “No Other Land.” It was produced by The Guardian, with James Wilson and Jonathan Glazer, from the team behind “The Zone of Interest.” After its screening at the Venice Film Festival, it won the Special Jury Prize.
Then came the reaction. In Italy it topped the box office on its opening day, and its run was extended because demand exceeded expectations. It is currently leading the box office in Belgium. In Israel, the reception was entirely different. Netanyahu accused the filmmakers of contributing to “antisemitic incitement worldwide,” and the Culture Minister called for stripping them of their citizenship, while dozens of human rights organizations and more than 1,500 filmmakers stood by them. The directors stand by the soundness of the investigations on which the work is based.
The irony is that the film will be made available free of charge around the world once its theatrical run ends, leaving no excuse for anyone who wants to judge for themselves.
The most important question remains: how do we protect human beings in wartime, if they have become merely a number, a known toll before the strike?
