Review of 'No Other Land' (2024)
Our review of No Other Land (2024), the first Palestinian documentary to win an Oscar, with a discussion of controversies at the Berlinale & Oscars, the history of Masafer Yatta, and donation links.
4.5 out of 5 stars, documentary
The Oscar-winning documentary is a beautifully edited piece that spans 96 minutes, and is the result of the directorial team’s hard work over the past five years. Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor have documented a mass amount of footage over five years in Basel’s hometown, Masafer Yatta, and collected archival videos from beyond, courtesy of the Adra family who lived there for generations. It is chronologically structured and interspersed with old archival footage to give context, and occasional narration to fill in the gaps when villagers are not speaking. The documentary shows glimpses of the reality that the villagers face in Masafer Yatta, through the eyes of Basel Adra, a Palestinian native, and Yuval Abraham, a visiting Israeli journalist.
Their friendship and the camaraderie that develops throughout the film offer a different perspective than what is currently shown in the mainstream, polarized narrative– that Israelis and Palestinians despise each other due to their religious differences. The beginning few scenes showed that Palestinians approached Yuval with complete curiosity and asked questions of his moral stance on his state’s crimes. It is precisely through the gentle lens of their friendship and their difference in privileges that the documentary was able to tackle various topics at once, such as distinguishing between law and morality, the decades-long Masafer Yatta court case, generational trauma, arrests and the effects of mass forced eviction.
Basel and Yuval had multiple moments throughout the film where they privately shared their frustrations and concerns as activists. As someone born into activism simply due to the fact of being born Palestinian, much of their conversation dynamic was Basel reminding Yuval to be patient and resilient whenever he expressed distraught. While driving the car in the late night, he consoled Yuval, saying:
“I feel you are too enthusiastic, as if you want to solve everything, end the occupation in ten days and go home. You want it all fast. This has been going on for decades… It takes patience.”
– Basel Adra, No Other Land (2024)
Right after saying that through a forced smile, Basel wiped away tears– whether those tears were due to the emotional issue of his hometown, or the lack of sleep, the viewer would never know. However, the viewers were still privy to the emotional wear-and-tear of the two activists over the years as their eyebags darkened and hollowed, cigarettes increasingly smoked, and a poignant moment was when viewers witnessed a brief episode of delirious mania from sleeplessness. It quickly became clear that as residents, Basel and the other filmed Palestinians mostly displayed three emotional states: lethargy as a result of constant fatigue, delirium from sleeplessness and stress, and a shockingly energetic level of defiance when facing violence.
In a later interview with NPR, Yuval confessed how he was humbled from their many conversations, saying:
“For me, this is one of the main things that I learned from, you know, meeting Basel. And in a way, when you live a life of privilege, it’s very easy to have hope and to imagine that, you know, if you find the right political solution, then things will change. But actually, when you live under so much oppression, then you understand that having hope is dangerous because your heart will be broken… and I remember standing there with Basel and talking to him afterwards, and I admired the way, you know, his community resisted these policies.”
– Yuval Abraham, interview with NPR
To lend extra credit to Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian directors of this collaboration, their nativity to the land allowed the viewer to gain an intimate relationship with the villagers. The villagers felt more free and comfortable to speak in front of the camera in a candid, honest way because they personally knew Basel and Hamdan. In this documentary, the viewer was able to watch a villager, Harun Abu Aram, get shot and paralyzed for resisting forced eviction, and his depression that followed his injury. After receiving emergency first aid for his gunshot wounds, Harun and his family returned to living in the caves and a makeshift tent, because they were unable to obtain a building permit to construct a proper room. Journalists would attempt to film Harun’s state of living, to little success, as he became too depressed to tolerate anyone who was not his family. His mother noted that despite all the attention, no material change ever occurred and they continued to live in conditions that resulted in his slow death.
“Eventually, after two years lying paralyzed, he died. His mother is a true hero, I think, and her life story for me is the greatest occupation of why this occupation is so unjust. And I think it was important for us to take her words– that she has no other land, and it is her land– and to emphasize them.”
– Yuval Abraham, interview with NPR
The documentary also made the viewer witness family discussions when they were not staring down the barrel of military tanks and bulldozers. In front of the Israeli military, residents were not given more than five minutes to gather their belongings before their homes were demolished. This happened so frequently that when schoolchildren saw Israeli soldiers visiting near the school, they immediately packed up their toys and learning materials without another word. In the privacy of their homes, a mother whispered amidst her rising anxiety, “I hear army helicopters all day. Tomorrow there will be another demolition, I can feel it.”
The documentary ended on a rather open note, which signalled that the situation in Masafer Yatta had neither gotten better nor worse. Houses are still getting demolished, residents still rebuild, and families still endure the forced evictions.
Yuval: “Basel, I don’t know what I would do if I were you…
how you have so much hope and power.”
Basel: “Sometimes when I think about it too hard,
there’s a big depression in me.”
Debut at the Berlinale
“The place you were born in, it’s impossible to forget.
So how can they expect us to forget it?”
— No Other Land (2024)
With its debut at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival on 25 February 2024, No Other Land won both the Berlinale Documentary Film Award and the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film. It is fitting for the documentary to make its premiere at the festival’s biggest jury of the Panorama, because it was created to:
“Screen extraordinary cinema. Panorama is always looking for what is new, daring, unconventional and wild in today’s cinema. Here a wide and curious audience can discover films that offer friction and provide material for discussion. The selection of films is simultaneously an invitation and a demand to see cinema in a different light.”
– Michael Stütz, Head of Panorama
Due to multiple wars and censorship, the 74th edition of the Berlinale was more politically charged than usual. There were heated discussions on the war in Ukraine, Palestine, antisemitism, and Germany’s far-Right political movements. Protests rocked the closing ceremony, and filmmakers took the stage to wear the Palestinian keffiyehs to show solidarity.
“Of course we also stand for life here, and we stand against genocide
and for a ceasefire in solidarity with all our comrades.”
— Ben Russell
No Other Land’s directors, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham stood at the centre of the controversy due to their nationalities: being Palestinian and Israeli, respectively. They met as journalists for the independent, joint Israeli-Palestinian magazine called the +972 Magazine. Before the documentary, they wrote many posts on social media and articles calling for the end of the apartheid, but those were not being engaged with. In No Other Land (2024), Basel specifically expressed gratitude for his post reaching 2366 people. That lack of public attention made them turn to cinema and the emotive powers of film-making. Their award acceptance speeches at the Berlinale were brief yet powerful, calling for the end of genocide and military occupation. They also called on Germany to “respect the UN calls and to stop sending weapons to Israel.” After the Berlinale, Yuval received multiple death threats from his Israeli peers.
Unfortunately, as the Berlinale was based in Germany, many far-Right civilians and politicians deemed the festival as antisemitic. Kai Wegner, the mayor of Berlin, took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice his thoughts. Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, quoted that tweet and condemned the Berlinale for rolling out the red carpet for artists who promote the “delegitimization of Israel” and antisemitic discourse.
To respond, festival director Mariëtte Rissenbeek reaffirmed that the Berlinale saw itself as a “platform for open dialogue across cultures … as long as those statements do not discriminate against people in a racist or similarly discriminating way or cross legal limits.” She saw that the statements spoken in the 74th festival did not cross legal limits and should not have been perceived as antisemitic. She saw that “we have to face up to this controversial topic, as an international film festival and as a society as a whole.”
“The festival is a mirror of what’s happening in the world, and the world around us right now has a lot of topics which are very political.”
It must be remembered that to describe No Other Land as antisemitic is to degrade and misappropriate the very meaning of the word. Kenneth Stern, drafter of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition argued in 2019 that antisemitism had turned into a “blunt instrument used by those who seek out binary good/bad, black and white thinking”. He argued that the term was co-opted by Right-wing Jews who weaponized the term to silence others.
Criticisms at the Oscars
No Other Land recently won the Best Documentary Award at the recent Oscars, and Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham’s acceptance speeches were once again met with criticism. However, the critiques this time were aimed at how the film implied the normalization of Israel as a state, and its:
“Occupation, apartheid, and settler colonialism seem normal and establishing normal relations with the Israeli regime.”
– Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
This sentiment has gained enough traction that the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement has shared their stance. The BDS and PACBI expressed that prior to the Oscars, the film did not gain enough recognition to warrant a statement, and instead reserved themselves until after No Other Land won the Oscar award.
Notably, the BDS and PACBI stressed that the film, Oscar speeches, nor the film company behind the documentary (Close Up Initiative) did not publicly and explicitly recognize the UN-affirmed inalienable rights of Palestinians (at the very least an end to the occupation, end to apartheid, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees), nor did they emphasize co-resistance. Palestinian-Israeli co-resistance is seen as a necessary socio-political stance to end the historical causes of Israeli apartheid.
Co-resistance in this context includes:
Refusing to exploit Jewish people as tools and fuel for strengthening the occupation
Refusing to exploit Jewish people to provoke additional aggressive wars in the Middle East
Recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return and self-determination, and the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian state
Recognizing the right of the Palestinian people to resist
Participating in the struggle to end the occupation
To gauge the community’s reaction towards Yuval being accused of liberal zionism and the film itself, the writer Samah Salaime visited Masafer Yatta and asked around. All responded positively.
“Yuval is far more Palestinian than most of these online commentators attacking him… He is Jewish and Israeli, but he understands exactly what’s happening here just as I do, and he chose to stand with us.”
– Local activist in Masafer Yatta
It should be stressed that within the film, Yuval Abraham did display characteristics of co-resistance as he protested against the Israeli arrest of Basel Adra. It can also be argued that by amplifying Basel Adra’s voice, it is also a method of co-resistance. However, these judgments and standards are rather subjective. As neither director has responded to these criticisms, it is important to stay critical and to pay attention to Palestinian voices.
We must remind ourselves: what did No Other Land set out to achieve?
A documentation of Basel Adra’s hometown getting destroyed against the context of the Israeli military occupation.
Masafer Yatta (مسافر يط)
“Do you have any other place to go?”
”We have no other land. It’s our land, so we suffer for it.”– No Other Land (2024)
Masafer Yatta is a collection of 12 Palestinian villages in the West Bank, located approximately 20 kilometres south from the city of Hebron. The Palestine Exploration Fund wrote in 1881 that many hamlets were located in ruins and caves. Residents of Masafer Yatta are spread across the land in agricultural and shepherding communities. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the population was 768 in 2007. However, current population numbers are hard to estimate due to constant Israeli military settlements, destruction of Palestinian homes, and forced displacement of the community.
“The situation of the Shi’b Al-Butum community [of Masafer Yatta] is a microcosm of what Palestinians, in particular herding and Bedouin communities, are facing across most of the occupied West Bank. Settlers trespass on their land, vandalize and steal their property, harass and physically assault them with total impunity.”
– Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns
Since the Six-Day June war of 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and Masafer Yatta is within “Area C” under the Oslo Accords, a complex agreement of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Israel has full military and civil control over this area, and the army denominated this area as “Firing Zone 918” for military training. Israel claims that these firing zones are essential for military training live-fire exercises.
As Masafer Yatta has been declared as a firing zone, Israel has been regularly demolishing houses, evicting families, and controlling construction permits for rebuilding ever since. Israeli organization Peace Now! also reported that Israeli planning authorities would not approve a single building permit nor appeal for Palestinian residential purposes in Area C. In 2022, Israel set up ‘Operation Room C’ for ordinary citizens to report on any unauthorised construction in Area C of the occupied West Bank. The phone line is used by Israelis to target Palestinian construction. It is forbidden to dig for water wells, repair work and even to plant trees.
On 4 May 2022, the Israeli High Court issued its final decision on Masafer Yatta’s 22-year-old court case. The ruling concerned 8 out of 12 villages in the area, and the court rejected the villagers’ petitions and simultaneously reaffirmed their forced eviction. The Israeli High Court affirmed the Israeli military to repurpose their land for military use, and echoed the previous Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s aims to annex the area and to curb Palestinian population growth. Most importantly, the ruling stated that when Israeli law conflicts with international law, the former should prevail.
“The prohibition of forcible transfer set forth in international law is a treaty norm, that is, one that expresses agreements between states but is not enforceable in a domestic court.”
– Judge Mintz, Israeli High Court
Attorney Michael Sfard argued that this rationale was a “serious legal error” and expressed his concerns in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter). He reasoned that forced transfer and displacement was a war crime, with historical roots from the Nuremberg Military Court after World War II, the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court, and the 1949 Geneva Convention.
Unfortunately, Masafer Yatta is still being evicted home by home, family by family. Humans of Masafer Yatta on Instagram documents the human stories and their lives after conflicting with the Israeli army. Basel Adra wrote an article on +972 Magazine about how the Israeli army continues to demolish homes, trees, and violently dispossess Palestinians, leaving them injured and unable to receive adequate medical care.
Resources and Donations
“I think people need to figure out how to take actions. They see something, they get touched, and then?”
– Yuval Abraham, No Other Land (2024)
#SaveMasaferYatta is a hashtag and an effort to provide emergency funds for villagers, with directors Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal as part of their advocacy team. Rebuilding Alliance is another partnering non-profit to provide protein-enhanced meals to Masafer Yatta, and works on building new homes for other Palestinians who wish to stay in their villages.
Narratives of Resistance urges you to donate and to check out the work that Save Masafer Yatta and Rebuilding Alliance do.
Below is an interview with Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal on HasanAbi, who streamed this interview to raise funds for Rebuilding Alliance.
Thanks for reading our post reviewing the documentary, No Other Land (2024) directed by Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal and Racher Szor! All opinions stated in our review are held by Narratives of Resistance only— it does not represent the views of anyone else. If you have watched this film, leave a comment below or DM us for a chat! Please check out the hyperlinks if you want to learn more from Basel and Yuval’s many interviews, its debut at the Berlin Film Festival, the controversies at the Oscars, Masafer Yatta and how to help.
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