No Other Land - Academy Award winner for best feature-length documentary

Although No Other Land won the Academy Award for best documentary feature-length film, it is almost impossible to view it in Israel.  I took advantage of the fact that I was visiting in New York and went to the Film Forum on W. Houston St. to see the film last week.

No Other Land (documentary, 2024, 95 minutes) was directed by two Palestinian filmmakers: Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, and two Jewish Israeli filmmakers: Yuval Avraham and Rachel Szor. This is a hard-hitting award-winning film about the oppressive and cruel nature of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.  The story takes place in Masafer Yatta, an area of 20 hamlets spread around the South Hebron Hills in the West Bank, not far from the Jewish settlement of Sussiya.

The film opens with Basel, one of the film directors, a Palestinian activist in his mid-20s, remembering back to when he was about 5-years-old and his father, Nasser, also an activist, was arrested for the first time.  Basel’s father owns a gas station, which is really just one gas pump, and he supports his family from the cars that stop by and fill up. 

They are battling the Israeli military for rights to stay on their land, where they have lived for more than one hundred years.  The Israeli army has decided to prevent the Palestinians of the area from living here, claiming that they need this area for an active military training zone, and they are enforcing a systematic destruction of entire villages.  Periodically, enormous bulldozers arrive to destroy homes. Imagine the trauma for the children standing by watching as their homes are demolished. These people are not primitive cave-dwellers, but after a village is destroyed, we see that the families have no other choice but to retreat and set up home in nearby caves.

Yuval is an Israeli journalist who grew up in Beersheba. He comes to cover the story, becomes emotionally involved in what’s happening and builds a strong attachment to the place, the people, and a real friendship with Basel.

The major part of the film tells the story of Basel’s activism, rooted in his father’s activism, how he uses social media, organizes protests, and tries so hard to protect their homes and villages.

Because the Palestinians persevere and continually rebuild, the military comes to confiscate their tools and their generator.  A scuffle ensues and Harun is shot.  The mother of Harun is a particularly compelling character who is forced to care for her paralyzed son. Her raw pain is palatable as she gives voice to her hope that her son will die peacefully and no longer suffer.

As things escalate, the military also begins to destroy the local school, pours concrete into a water well, and cuts irrigation infrastructure.  Eventually the nearby settlers from Sussiya join in the fray and arrive on a regular basis to terrorize the local population.

Even though the film refrains from telling many of the personal stories of the people suffering under this military oppression, it is still a harrowing story to watch.  Not exactly a fun night out! Perhaps continuing to deny the cruelty of the occupation and settler violence would be easier.  After viewing this film, I feel that it may mobilize more people to help Basel and the people of Masafer Yatta obtain the basic human rights of living on their own land with access to schools and water.

At the Academy Awards, the filmmakers Basel Adra, a Palestinian, and Yuval Avraham, an Israeli, spoke: “My hope to my daughter, that she will not have to live the same life I am living now,” Adra said. And from Avraham: “We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger, we see each other,” adding, “There is a different path… can’t you see that our future is intertwined. There is no other way.”

Watch the trailer here.