Gaza documentary ‘NAZA’ beating ‘Avengers Endgame: Encore’ at box office

‘NAZA’ draws Italian audiences as Gaza documentary outpaces Marvel rerelease

Usagevpn.com – An 80-minute documentary examining Israeli military operations in Gaza has become an unexpected box-office force in Italy, earning more in its opening days than the rereleased superhero film Avengers Endgame: Encore.

NAZA, directed by Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, arrived in Italian cinemas on Monday 28 September. By the following day, the film had taken in €1.1 million. During the same period, Avengers Endgame: Encore brought in €356,000.

The Marvel release revisits the 2019 global hit with additional scenes designed to connect it to the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Yet the documentary’s strong early performance has pushed its distributor to extend what had initially been planned as a three-day theatrical engagement.

Sold-out screenings have prompted wider interest from cinemas across the country, with more than 150 Italian venues expected to prolong the film’s run.

“As long as theatres want to show it, NAZA will continue to be screened,” Andrea Romeo, founder of the Italian distributor I Wonder Pictures, told La Repubblica.

Inside the film’s investigation

Abraham and Szor are the Israeli directors behind No Other Land. Their new project focuses on what its official synopsis describes as the systems underpinning Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

The film was made secretly during the continuing Gaza war, with filming conducted at night from Tel Aviv rooftops. It includes testimony from 24 Israeli military intelligence personnel, soldiers and whistleblowers. Their accounts address the selection of Palestinian targets and the use of artificial intelligence and automated surveillance within military targeting systems.

Participants describe strikes being carried out despite awareness that civilians are present in areas under attack. To protect those taking part, the production digitally changed both their faces and their voices.

The documentary draws on investigative work published between 2023 and 2025 by the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language publication Local Call and The Guardian. Its focus on military decision-making, surveillance and accountability has made it one of the most politically charged nonfiction releases of the year.

For viewers, the film’s cinema performance is notable because documentaries, particularly those dealing with an active conflict, rarely compete directly with large commercial franchises. The Italian response suggests that audiences are seeking out work that addresses the human consequences and internal mechanisms of the war in Gaza.

Venice recognition and political backlash

NAZA left this year’s Venice Film Festival with the Special Jury Prize. It also received a 25-minute standing ovation, a record at the festival.

The acclaim has been met with fierce criticism from Israeli political leaders. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the filmmakers of helping fuel what he called “global antisemitic incitement”.

“It’s shocking. We are fighting global antisemitic incitement and when it comes from within us it is intolerable,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on Telegram. “And now two Israeli directors portraying the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) as war criminals receive applause at the Venice festival.”

Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar also condemned the directors, equating criticism of Israel’s actions with antisemitism. He said he would “act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship” of Abraham and Szor.

The directors have framed the project as an examination of responsibility rather than a conventional war chronicle. Their statement places particular emphasis on their own position as Israelis investigating actions carried out by institutions of their country.

“We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israelis to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible,” explained Abraham and Szor. “While filming over the past three years, we found ourselves asking the very questions that were asked by our grandparents’ generation and throughout the 20th century: how does one group of people allow the total dehumanisation of another? What do the inner workings of such a system look like?”

International rollout ahead

The Italian theatrical expansion is only the first stage of a wider release. NAZA is scheduled to open in more than 50 territories over the coming weeks, giving the film a significantly broader international audience after its Venice premiere.

It will then become available to watch free of charge on The Guardian’s website in November. That planned release is likely to make the documentary accessible beyond festival audiences and ticket-buying cinema-goers, while extending debate around its claims and testimony.

Its rapid commercial success in Italy has already given the film an unusual position in the current cinema landscape: a documentary about an ongoing war competing with one of the most recognisable franchises in modern blockbuster history. As screenings continue to sell out, the scale of its distribution is set to grow alongside the controversy surrounding it.