No Other Land review
Director: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
Writers: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
Stars: Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham
Running Time: 95 minutes
Please note there may be spoilers below
No Other Land is not only the most affecting documentary of the year, it’s also probably the most affecting film of 2024. In it’s fearless pursuit to document the truth about Palestinian displacement in the West Bank, it paints such an effective and damning picture of the suffering of Masafer Yatta’s people that any partisan politics on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict are rendered mute in the face of such lopsided oppression. In a world overflowing with passionate opinions, I’d like to think we can all agree that when the IDF destroys a children’s school to enforce Palestinian expulsion, defending this particular IDF policy becomes an impossible act. No Other Land proves the emotional power of visual evidence – of shaking phones running from gunfire, of cameras filming the discriminate destruction of small farming communities. It’s one thing to fight against the forces that mean you harm, but filmmakers Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor show us the heartless consequences of occupation upon those least equipped to fight against it.
Within Masafer Yatta’s lightly scattered villages, Basel Adra and his family have lived in this region for generations. Basel is a 20-something political activist who uses his smartphone and the exposure of social media to draw attention to a seemingly endless injustice – unannounced they regularly hear the heavy motors of Israeli military vehicles coming over the nearest hill, shortly followed by the sound of bulldozers. Each time, the only mystery for them is whose home will be chosen. To watch No Other Land is to witness extensive on-the-ground footage of families evacuating their homes as the IDF destroy their often hand-build homes. To the Israeli Government Masafer Yatta is a military testing zone and the Palestinian population are living here illegally. “You need a permit to build here,” they say. To the people of Masafer Yatta, permits are hard to come by.
Basel’s father hand built a petrol pump beside their home, and often the film spends time in his family’s company as they fill up thirsty Palestinian cars driving through. All discussion is on when the IDF vehicles will return and who will be next. Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham is critically minded about his homeland. He often travels to Masafer Yatta to spend time with the Adra family, befriending Basel, who is of similar age. Yuval believes there are no degrees of morality here – what his country is doing is ethically poisonous, and he’s eager to publish as much as he can, whilst his own country chastises him for being a traitor and Palestinian sympathizer. In one breathtaking moment, he is threatened by an IDF contractor that “Someone will be paying him a visit.” All displacement on this land seems to produce a boundless energy for hatred.
For all the injustice, Basel and Yuval’s friendship is a much needed reminder of cross-border brotherly love. Softening the film’s heart, between evictions and demolitions, they spend their time engaging in the type of banter typical of best friends at school. Yet, their words are always stained by the disparate forces they can’t help but represent – each time Yuval drives back to Israel in his Volkswagen, it seems unignorable he’s driving to a place very far away from Basel’s daily struggle. As they spend warm nights smoking shisha, Basel declines into a sleepless, hollowed -out man, exhausted by the weight of constant struggle and it’s depressing affect on his future. As sympathetic as Yuval is, no amount of truthful journalism seems to be enough to help the man he calls his friend.
The key to No Other Land is the humility of it’s leads. These are farming people, hard laborers who build homes and chicken houses for survival. As one house is bulldozed, it is in their nature to rise early the following day and build another. The very act of living here is to resist. So often we are shown the power of small community as skill neighbors help each other to build shelter. Basel’s father himself was once a young activist like his son – it seems only a matter of time before they come for both of them. As children search for chickens amongst the ruins, as another family is forced to take shelter inside a cave, it feels like this struggle is unfairly asymmetrical by design. The abundance of footage here serves as insight into the humble needs of ordinary people caught in a complex Geo-political chess game. At the bottom of the big events of history are the individuals who simply want to survive on a landscape that seems only to provide them hate. They deserve better than the story they’ve been given.
