Hi folks,

Today’s letter is a little shorter than usual, because it didn’t feel quite right to attach anything else to a write-up of this particular film. I’ll try to make it up to you on Friday.

In 2024’s shattering, Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, we see families living in the West Bank contend with constant aggressions from Israeli soldiers: they are beaten and shot and arrested, their homes are destroyed, their humanity is denied in coldly systematic fashion. Though the film’s critics (including government officials in Berlin, where the film premiered) decried it for being one-sided, it is hard to watch the footage and conceive of how its narrative might be given nuance by external, contrary voices. What is in front of us is plain and inarguable, both in the context of history and in the immediate reality of the present. 

Two of No Other Land’s directors, Israeli activists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, have followed up that film with another damning look at the policies and actions of the Israeli Defense Forces, this time focusing on their obliteration of Gaza. The film, NAZA (now playing in select theaters in the US), has been similarly condemned by detractors, but in even harsher terms. Benjamin Netanyahu has backed a proposal to strip dissidents like Abraham and Szor of their citizenship; right-wing factions have called for the directors’ execution; the IDF has launched an investigation to identify the former military and intelligence personnel who spoke, anonymously, to the filmmakers. There is a dangerous uproar surrounding NAZA. Watching the film, it’s easy to see why.