Cinema City, the largest cinema chain in Romania, has not put the documentary “NAZA” on its programme. Distributor Bad Unicorn received a written explanation: the company calls itself neutral and apolitical. This is a programming decision, not a government ban.

HotNews published the reply on Wednesday 21 October 2026. Cinema City România SRL runs, according to figures on its own site, 30 multiplexes, 273 screens and almost 48,378 seats. The film is still showing, the distributor says, in 22 cinemas in 14 cities, including Cineplexx and Happy Cinema.

Bad Unicorn says it offered the title to every hall in the country. Cinema City is not the only one that refused, but it is among the few that gave a reason. The message to the distributor: choosing not to screen “Naza” “does not represent a political position or an assessment of the film’s theme or message”.

HotNews also asked Cinema City directly. Raluca Zamfir, of the PR agency Ran Communication, repeated the impartiality line and added that the decision “is not related to the company’s shareholding”. She said the documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” was not shown at Cinema City either. Other partners told the distributor in October that the subject was “too political”, or that an independent documentary would lack “box-office potential”.

“NAZA” is a Guardian production, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, 80 minutes, released in Romania on 9 October 2026. It won the Special Jury Prize at Venice 2026. The same authors won the 2025 Oscar for “No Other Land”. The film is shot on rooftops in Tel Aviv, with interviews with Israeli soldiers about operations in Gaza. That is a description of the work, not a court verdict of ours.

Bad Unicorn’s 19–24 October list includes, among others, Cineplexx Băneasa, Cinemax Veranda, Elvire Popesco, Cinema Union, Apollo111 and Happy Cinema. WatchNaza.com had a shorter list on 18 October; the figure of 22 halls is the distributor’s, carried by HotNews.

We do not turn the refusal into a censorship law and we do not tie it to a parliamentary vote. Cinema City said other titles have also been left off the programme. Until the listings change, the closed fact is the chain’s refusal plus the neutrality explanation, while other halls still have the film on screen.

Image: Turgidson, Elvire Popesco hall, Bucharest, 19 June 2022, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; the hall is on the Bad Unicorn list, not a Cinema City multiplex.

Sources consulted: Cea mai mare retea de cinematografe din Romania nu difuzeaza NAZA, documentarul israelian despre Gaza. Ce explicatie a primit compania care distribuie filmul - HotNews; Naza - Bad Unicorn.