No Other Land
Written and directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor
Unrated
Runtime 1 hour and 35 minutes
In theaters February 7

by Carmen Paddock, Staff Writer

Rarely has a documentary felt as timely as No Other Land, though the issues explored in documenting a Palestinian community’s resistance have been tragically omnipresent over generations. Basel Adra, a young Palestinian from Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, has been fighting displacement at the hands of Israeli military and settler forces since he was a child. To combat this ever-present threat, he and his family have documented years of destruction, loss, and starting over due to eviction after eviction in the face of continued precarity and restricted rights. 

When Yuval Abraham, a young Israeli journalist, comes to investigate crimes committed by the military, the two find a unity of purpose in protesting the theft and demolition of homes, schools, and livelihoods. Underpinning it all is the fundamental difference in their statuses as humans and citizens: Abraham has freedom of movement and freedom to protest, whereas Adra is not only limited in these regards but also actively harassed and oppressed.

In content and form, No Other Land is neither new nor groundbreaking. The human rights abuses, land theft, and forced displacements practiced by the Israeli Occupying Forces (and unofficial civilian bands) against Palestinian civilians has been well documented for decades; while focusing on one community here, theirs is not a unique or uniquely horrible story. Likewise, the format of two people coming together from different backgrounds to expose an injustice is tried and true. However, a film as urgent as this one does not need originality. What it needs–and has–is a righteous indignation and belief that a better future is not only possible but necessary. The footage is cleanly compiled and clearly edited–giving moments of conversation and reflection time to breathe despite the short running time–and the handheld footage when (largely unarmed) activists are chased by (armed) military forces is visceral and harrowing. 

Both Abraham and Adra have spoken extensively about their differences in experiences and unequal treatment getting this film made, and Abraham called out the censorship the film faced upon its release in Germany, despite winning both the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film and the Documentary Film Award at the 2024 Berlinale. Watching the initially sympathetic but distanced Abraham grow in indignation after witnessing his friends’ plight first-hand, not just through a lens, gives the film its arc. This growth is a natural and expected development but also represents the power that cinema–as a stand-in for lived experience and window into lives–has to effect change in its viewers. 

Aside from a short postlude, the events depicted in No Other Land cover from 2019 to September 2023, predating the October 7 terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel. The Israel-Hamas War and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank (not to mention involvement of other countries throughout 2024) lend the documentary a painful relevance, but were these events not to happen, very little would have changed in the content of Adra and Abraham’s exploration. No Other Land thus remains as essential as it would have been–and that is vitally essential. 

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