A moving, immersive and prescient documentary, No Other Land, longlisted for the European Film Awards, details the eradication of the villages in the Masafer Yatta area on the Southern West Bank over a period of years, as seen from the perspective of Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist/journalist brought up in Masafer Yatta, and Yuval, an Israeli journalist who supports him in his efforts to bring attention to what is happening to the community.
Adra has been fighting the mass expulsion of his community by Israel’s occupation since childhood. He talks about recalling the first time his father was arrested and how he attended his first protest aged seven. He also remembers how young people around him started filming the community of 20 small villages in Masafer Yatta where he was brought up.
The area has been under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967 and was subsequently designated for use by the Israeli army for military training, which meant that Palestinians could be expelled from their homes. When communities attempt to re-build make-shift domiciles they are usually bulldozed by Israeli contractors who are guarded by the army who keep locals at bay.
At some point, Adra meets Yuval, an Israeli journalist who supports him in his efforts. An unlikely alliance develops and the pair rush to various sites to film buildings being torn down and people displaced. The film attempts a personal narrative to indicate how the relationship between the two becomes strained due to the enormous inequality between them – Basel Adra lives under military occupation while Yuval lives freely and without restrictions – but this feels at times like a device to craft a journey…when in truth the brutal heart of the film is the visceral footage of homes being destroyed; army ruthlessness and a real sense of community within the villages.
By its very nature, this is not a film aimed at offering balance or perspective. It is very much a story seen from one side, and while some archival news footage material aims to offer views from the Israeli POV, it is the found footage from Adra and his colleagues that drives the documentary. This includes harrowing footage of a man being shot by the army when they are trying to confiscate a small mobile generator (the man is left paralysed); a precious playground and elementary school being demolished and wells being filled with concrete; and towards the end a heavily armed Jewish settler shooting a Palestinian man at point-blank range.
The footage of oppression by Israeli forces (and attacks by Jewish settlers) is at times brutal and always disturbing, but the film also balances this material with warm-hearted sequences of families laughing and bonding in the face of great adversity; children playing and smiling amidst devastated buildings and a real sense of warmth and compassion within the communities.
The October 7 attack by Hamas fighters effected a significant change in circumstances, with Israeli forces clamping down on communities in the West Bank and settler violence increasing, eventually leading to more families finally packing up their belongings and giving up on the long-held dream of continuing to live in Masafer Yatta. In the end, despite heart-felt protests and determination to stay on their land, families bow to the inevitable.
No Other Land is a powerful, provocative and moving film, made with passion by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists offering creative resistance in the continuing hope that justice will prevail.
Palestine-Norway, 2024, 95mins
Dirs: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Production: Yabayay Media, Antipode Films
Producers: Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Cinematography: Rachel Szor
Editors: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Music: Julius Pollux Rothlaender
