By Solomon "Customs" Bridges
Twenty-five minutes is a long time to stand and clap. That's how long the audience at the Venice Film Festival reportedly stayed on its feet for "NAZA," a documentary in which Israeli military insiders describe what they call the systematic killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza — the longest standing ovation on record at the festival, according to NPR.
The film's power, by this account, comes from its sourcing: not outside observers or activists, but people who served inside the Israeli military establishment, speaking on camera about what they witnessed or carried out. That kind of testimony carries particular weight precisely because it comes from insiders — though it's worth being plain that the specific allegations, names, and units involved in "NAZA" were not detailed in the reporting available here, and a full accounting of the film's claims deserves its own scrutiny before they're treated as settled fact.
What is verifiable is the reception: a record-length ovation at one of the world's most prominent film festivals, a venue that has, in past years, become an unlikely stage for geopolitical arguments as much as cinematic ones. The Golden Lion, Venice's top prize, was still to be decided as the festival closed.
Film festivals don't end wars. But they do shape what publics abroad are willing to believe, discuss, and demand of their own governments — and a documentary built from the testimony of people inside the system it critiques has a way of traveling further than most. Whether "NAZA" wins Venice's top honor or not, the ovation itself is now part of the story: a room full of strangers, standing, for twenty-five minutes, over images from a war still being fought.
Nothing happens 'over there' anymore.
— Compiled from reporting by NPR.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."