In a five-star review, the Financial Times's Danny Leigh says that as a piece of cinema, 'journalism and film-making brilliantly entwine'. The Times calls the film 'hugely provocative and a disturbing account' of the conflict, while the Irish Times brands NAZA 'an essential record of engineered nightmare'. The Guardian's own Peter Bradshaw gives the film four stars, saying the 'anguish of Gaza is brought into pin-sharp focus'.
British Vogue calls NAZA a 'brilliant and harrowing film' that outlines the 'restrained, meticulous, bone-chilling depiction of the progressive erasure of Gaza', predicting it will become 'an enduring historical document'. Time Out magazine says the documentary 'puts together a restrained, intelligent, articulate, precise and utterly damning case against Israel's actions in Gaza' and calls it exemplary as both cinema and journalism.
Across the Atlantic, the New York Times names the film a critic's choice, describing it as a 'haunting' documentary that is 'tough to watch, and impossible to ignore'. The Los Angeles Times says NAZA is 'stone-cold frightening' and 'burns the conscience'. New York magazine calls it 'one of the most important films of our time'.
The documentary features 24 interviews with Israeli military insiders, all speaking anonymously and filmed on rooftops in Tel Aviv at night to protect their identities. It is released in UK cinemas this week and will expand to more than 50 countries in the coming months, with a free online version scheduled for late November on the Guardian's website.