The audience clapped continuously for Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor after the screening, setting what is thought to be a record in Venice after a 23-minute ovation for another film about Gaza last year.
In their film NAZA, Abraham and Szor used conversations with 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistle-blowers who spoke on condition that their identities be protected.
“We are letting the soldiers and the officers speak about what they did,” Abraham told Agence France-Presse.
“The goal was very simple: we wanted to hear in as much detail as possible, how the systems of killing in Gaza looked like, how they operated.”
The 80-minute film left many audience members stunned, with interviewees describing how they felt like they worked in a killing “factory” or a lethal video game.
