NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, joins a growing body of documentaries that grant firsthand accounts from individuals involved in large-scale violence and human rights violations. The film features interviews with members of Israeli intelligence who discuss their roles in military operations, presented as articulate, educated professionals who acknowledge conducting what they characterize as genocide. This approach places the work alongside prior documentary efforts examining perpetrators, including Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2013 film The Act of Killing, which documented members of 1960s Indonesian death squads, and Errol Morris’s Standard Operating Procedure, featuring US soldiers involved in abuses at Abu Ghraib.
The genre raises fundamental questions about understanding how ordinary individuals become participants in atrocities. Oppenheimer has articulated the philosophical foundation: examining perpetrators as human actors is necessary to comprehend crimes against humanity. However, this approach generates significant controversy. Critics, including Palestinians, contend that amplifying perpetrator perspectives risks overshadowing victim testimony and documentation already produced by affected communities. Some argue such films risk providing platforms to individuals more appropriately tried in international courts. Additional ethical concerns involve whether perpetrators are being compensated for participation and whether their participation itself constitutes complicity.
The reactions to NAZA illustrate the film’s contentious impact. The Israeli government has threatened citizenship revocation for the directors. A counter-documentary, Naza: The Real Story, was subsequently launched to contest the narrative. Yet the genre’s significance extends beyond individual films. In Indonesia, where official history long mirrored perpetrators’ narratives, Oppenheimer made his film freely available. Similarly, the power of NAZA within Israeli society lies partly in demonstrating that Israelis themselves can reject current governmental positions, offering internal dissent that may resonate more effectively domestically than external criticism.
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