As the first major film about the occupation of Palestine since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, No Other Land is nothing less than a desperate act of survival. Largely reliant on handheld footage shot by activists, the very act of filming becomes a shield, a tool, a weapon in moments of conflict. The person holding the camera often shouts “I am filming!” while they record scenes of violence and destruction of homes in Palestinian communities in the West Bank, as if the very act of filming is their only source of security. However, in this harrowing documentary that places you right among the conflict, you feel just how fragile that security is. A camera or a phone feels very fragile compared to a gun or a bulldozer.
On a formal level, No Other Land is unlike most documentaries playing at festivals this year. It primarily consists of amateur footage, filmed on handheld cameras and cellphones by activists like Basel Adra. Basel is a young Palestinian journalist seeking to protect his home in Masafer Yatta, a village that is under constant threat of destruction by the Israeli military. The amateur footage is immersive, literally putting you in the hands of the activists as they clash with the Israeli military and protest the systematic annihilation of their homes and communities. You feel the danger that these activists are putting themselves in, through the sheer act of resisting and documenting. You feel their fear, their anger, their desperation, and their sense of injustice.
Crucially, however, you also feel their hope, their humanity, and their resilience. The documentary comes to life capturing moments of humanity amidst the destruction. Even as their homes are destroyed and they are forced to live in caves, Basel and his family share a meal and laugh at the antics of their toddler nephew. As Basel watches out for Israeli police who may be coming to arrest him, his mother asks if he has eaten enough and chastises him to put on a warmer coat. He talks with a friend about whether they will ever get married and joke about their taste in music. These moments make the documentary sing amidst the destruction.
Another key figure in the documentary is Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist who becomes a close friend of Basel and joins him in their fight against the Israeli Defense Forces. His situation is a complicated one. As an Israeli who supports the Palestinians, he receives persecution from both sides — other Israelis view him as a traitor to the Jews, while many Palestinians view him with scorn and vent their frustration towards him for how his nation is ravaging their communities. At one point, when Yuval wants to leave Masafer Yatta to visit his family, even Basel questions him, asking whether Yuval is scared and is trying to run away from the conflict. Basel, after all, is trapped. As a Palestinian, it is illegal for him to leave the area.
No Other Land is not a documentary created to win prizes—though it won both the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and is tipped for more major awards contention. Rather, it is a film made out of urgent necessity, as a way of recording history. Throughout the documentary, Basel talks of his earliest memories, often directly connected to protests, arrests, and acts of civil disobedience, many of which are captured in digital archival footage. Filmmaking is memory making, defining what is passed on.
However, No Other Land is not just a way for these Palestinian communities to say “we were here,” but rather “we ARE here.” It is fundamentally a cry for help, recording acts of violence, oppression, and eradication of communities, and then sending it out into the world in the hope that things will change. In footage recorded in 2019, Basel and Yuval are driving together and talking about their efforts. Basel reassures Yuval that their journalism will make a difference, saying that when the USA sees this, they will enact sanctions against Israel and they will stop the oppression. As of October 2024, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have died and countless communities like Masafer Yatta have been destroyed. No Other Land’s footage may conclude in 2023, but the violence continues.
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No Other Land — Palestine/Norway. Dialog in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor. Running time 1hr 36min. First released February 17, 2024 (Berlinale).
This article is part of Cinema Escapist’s dedicated coverage of the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival.