Calling the shots: what NAZA says about perpetrator cinema
The documentary detailing Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza is the latest film to give a voice to those who carry out atrocities – confronting viewers with some of the most difficult questions of all Are we still talking about the banality of evil? When that overworked phrase was first used by philosopher Hannah Arendt, it described the blank persona of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Now, in NAZA…
Key points
- NAZA is a documentary in which anonymised Israeli intelligence members discuss remotely executing the assault on Gaza.
- The film is directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by the Guardian, with Jonathan Glazer as executive producer.
- The article compares NAZA to earlier perpetrator cinema such as The Act of Killing and Standard Operating Procedure.
A new documentary called NAZA features anonymised members of Israeli intelligence discussing their remote execution of the assault on Gaza. The film is directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and is produced by the Guardian, with Jonathan Glazer as an executive producer.
The article places NAZA within a tradition of perpetrator cinema, films that give a voice to people who carry out atrocities. It compares the documentary to earlier works including Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing and Errol Morris's Standard Operating Procedure.
What the film shows
In NAZA, the interviewees are described as articulate, middle-class millennials who say they are leftwing and non-racist. One of them remarks that they have been conducting a genocide.
The article notes that the Israeli government has floated stripping Abraham and Szor of their citizenship, among other threats. A rebuttal film, Naza: The Real Story, was recently launched.
To understand a crime as a human activity, we have to look at the human beings who undertake that activity.
— Joshua Oppenheimer
Debate around perpetrator cinema
The article recalls that The Act of Killing, released in 2013, involved members of 1960s Indonesian death squads and drew lavish acclaim. Standard Operating Procedure interviewed US soldiers who abused Iraqis at Abu Ghraib.
Some critics have questioned whether NAZA privileges the perpetrator. Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha argued that Gazans have already documented the past three years, posting that it is all there and asking what the film will add.
The article also cites Oppenheimer, who said on the Jewish Currents podcast that to understand a crime as a human activity, we have to look at the human beings who undertake that activity.
