No Other Land

No Other Land is one of the most important documentaries of this present moment -- it is a shame (but not a surprise) that it's become somewhat difficult to find/see anywhere.

Like 20 Days in Mariupol did with Russia's 2022 siege of Mariupol in Ukraine, it speaks to us bluntly right from the eye of the storm, that storm being the Israeli occupation of Palestine (chiefly the demolition of the filmmaker's home region in the West Bank, in this case). It may seem infantile to use terms like "pure evil", but there's basically no other way to describe some of what we witness in this footage.

It also involves a fascinating friendship, as Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who documents the gradual ruination of his home in Masafer Yatta on video, finds a connection with an Israeli journalist named Yuval Abraham, who wishes to help him, even as it becomes clear he can never quite understand his struggle. Nevertheless, their material became this film; both are credited as directors and writers alongside Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor, who is also Israeli.

Why this film would be inconvenient for Israel-sympathizers is obvious (when the film began to receive awards recognition, the IDF promptly surrounded Adra's home). But its central friendship -- and the fact that the friend in question demonstrably agreed to help get this movie made -- likely makes it inconvenient for those who use this conflict as an excuse for anti-Semitism, asserting that any Israeli person or even any Jewish person is fair game to brand a monster, if not outright kill.

Fact is, there are plenty like Abraham and Szor. For as much as Zionists like to insist that all "true" Jewish people ARE, in fact, on board with the whole Zionism thing (and in so doing they effectively agree with the aforementioned anti-Semites), there are several Jewish people and indeed Israeli citizens who are aghast at the idea that their ancestors survived The Holocaust only for the descendants to rework "Never again" into "Never again... to us".

I don't know the route to a happy Middle East any more than the next person; that it will never be achieved if Israel continues on its current path seems certain. Defenders of the Israeli state dislike the use of the term "settler-colonialism" to describe what has been happening, but it's hard to find an alternative for the bleak reality shown in this film, a collaboration between a Palestinian facing eviction from the family land in the West Bank and a sympathetic Israeli. That collaboration is perhaps the only heartening thing in an otherwise deeply depressing, but important, film. Tellingly, it was all shot before autumn 2023; it's hard to believe that anything has got better since then.

Incredibly hard to watch, but vital. The viewpoint we in North America are not allowed to see. Documentation of the devastation wrought by modern day colonialism, which needs to remembered, and recognized. History is being made and it the film makers are telling the side of the oppressed, who have been ignored for too long! Please do what you can to see this film. When the powers that be don't want you to see something, you know it is something that needs attention. Beautifully shot, devastating footage of atrocious settler actions, tearing down schools, children crying, violence being committed against villagers, it is incredible how many atrocious acts the filmmakers were able to record.

The winner of this years Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars (despite not having a major distributor for release in the United States), No Other Land is a warts and all account of a relatively unknown struggle taking place in West Bank's Masafer Yatta region where local Palestinian residents are battle occupation at the hands of Israeli forces.

A collaboration between directors Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, with Abraham and Adra front and centre to this DIY as the two join forces to help protest and cover the multi-decade spanning battle, Land may not provide anything ground-breaking from a filmmaking sense but its a powerful reminder of the voice cinema can have when it comes to issues that deserve the publics attention.

Making for likable faces to a very confronting and traumatic subject matter, Adra and Ballal arm themselves with handheld cameras and phones to capture years worth of footage as the Israeli military undertakes an increasingly intense operation to flatten the Masafer Yatta community on its way to developing a "military training ground", amounting to a perilous and intense journey that acts as a heartfelt call to action to halt the mistreatment of this populated area of the West Bank.

There's no particular rhyme or reason to the way Land unfolds, a product of the fluid nature of the filming that was merely there to capture what was unfolding not manufacture it, Land may lack a central narrative destination there's little mystery as to why this little film that could has managed to make such a big mark across the globe over the past 12 months with it harbouring a humanistic message at its core that makes us all realise that day to day tensions and carnage in the Middle East is increasingly running at boiling point.

Not easy viewing by any stretch of the imagination, witnessing peoples lives be destroyed before your very eyes its hard to bare and Land refuses to shy away from the casualties of its examination as innocent bystanders are shot and beaten on camera, showcasing the harsh realities of what happens when a corrupt force is allowed to run rampant.

An important piece of modern day documentary filmmaking, Land isn't perfect and is unquestionably rough around the edges but its essential viewing to anyone with a keen interest in journalistic feature film and anyone seeking to gain insights into current global situations that we should all be across.

Final Say -

A worthy Oscar winner that shines a light on a little known yet important topic, No Other Land is an insightful piece of filmmaking bought to life by two invested and reasonable central figures.

4 petrol stations out of 5

Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)

There is no other land and there should be no need for one.

A tragic story of greed and inhumanity that has been falling on deaf years for decades because one country is powerful and has powerful friends and allies and the other one has nothing to offer, therefore nobody cares what happens to it outside of a few minutes or days of noteworthy news and public outcry, which also tends to die down quickly as people go about their daily business and forget about the sorrows of people in a faraway land whom they'll never meet. That too is a story as old as time and history never seems to teach us much. When the weak become powerful they forget what it was like and they become oppressors without a second thought.

What a tame word "settler" is. It doesn't say anything, when in fact it means occupier.