No Other Land
Filmmakers and activists from Israel and Palestine collaborate to chronicle the devastating violence and displacement of people living in the West Bank
When No Other Land won best documentary at this year’s Berlinale, Israeli filmmaker and journalist Yuval Abraham used his acceptance speech to address the deep inequalities between himself and his Palestinian co-director Basel Adra. However, his call for a ceasefire was met with charges of antisemitism and death threats. It was a depressing, but not unexpected response to a film whose generation-spanning depiction of life in the West Bank demonstrates how the situation in Palestine was at breaking point long before the events of 7 October.
Abraham first met Adra in 2019, when visiting Masafer Yatta to report on the illegal takeover of land by the Israeli army. Together with Palestinian activist Hamdan Ballal and Israeli cinematographer Rachel Szor, they decided to chronicle this violent campaign of demolition and mass expulsion. Abraham provides a vantage point for those of us who feel a mix of hopelessness and guilt when viewing the devastating images coming out of Palestine. But ultimately he, like many of us, is shielded from the violence catalogued by Adra’s home movies. Perhaps the most devastating of these is the demolition of Adra’s local school, which was previously saved from Israeli bulldozers following a visit by Tony Blair; a pertinent reminder that international pressure can make a difference!
No Other Land is an eye-opening and oft infuriating film about the emotional and mental impact of oppression. Thankfully the negotiation of the friendship between Abraham and Adra provides a glimmer of hope in the face of such incomprehensible destruction.
Released 8 Nov by Dogwoof; certificate 15