Venice Embraced a Gaza Documentary. Its Directors Now Face Threats.

The Guardian reports that the documentary NAZA, which won cinematic acclaim at the Venice film festival, has drawn extreme responses on two fronts. In the Sala Grande, the main screening hall of the Palazzo del Cinema, the audience first fell into stunned silence, then stood almost as one and turned toward the filmmakers. In Israel, the same film's directors have faced vitriol and death threats, a reaction the paper links to a febrile election campaign.

The account is the Guardian's, published on 19 September, and it describes a festival response that ran to both extremes: ovation inside the Palazzo del Cinema, menace outside it. The paper does not report the specific content of the threats, nor does it name those responsible. What it establishes is the contrast itself — acclaim in Venice, hostility in Israel — and the timing of the second, set against an election campaign the Guardian describes as febrile.

Venice has long been the festival where work about the Middle East draws its sharpest reactions, and this edition has now produced two such cases. The Guardian reported separately that the Iranian actor Laleh Marzban, who won a best newcomer award for her portrayal of a woman held hostage by her father in Falling House, has come under severe attack after dedicating her prize to "the women of Iran." The paper said she has received condemnations from authorities.