This article appeared in the September 12, 2025 edition of The Film Comment Letter, our free weekly newsletter featuring original film criticism and writing. Cover-Up (Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, 2025)There’s something strangely sedating about being at the Venice Film Festival. Rajab was trapped in the vehicle amidst their dead bodies and called the Palestine Red Crescent Society from a cell phone for help. The director uses the real audio of Rajab’s phone call, but reconstructs the scenes that unfolded at the Red Crescent call center with actors. This coordination is brutally complex: the Red Crescent has to inform the Red Cross, who in turn have to get permission from the Israeli military to open a safe route for the ambulance.