This searing documentary exposes the stark realities faced by Palestinians in Masafer Yatta.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Shot before the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Academy Award-nominated documentary “No Other Land” depicts Israel’s use of armed soldiers, military vehicles, and bulldozers to threaten and forcibly expel Palestinian families and destroy their homes, claiming that the land on the West Bank, which belonged to the Palestinians for generations, is now an Israeli “military training ground.”
To watch the film is to feel the despair of people, including many children, facing expulsion from their ancestral homes with few options for where else to go. At the same time, Israeli settlers, who are hostile to their Palestinian neighbors, have moved in and are expanding their settlements.
The film has two main characters. One of them is Basel Adra, also credited as a director and a writer (the film was made by a Palestinian-Israeli Collective of four activists). Basel, a young adult, has lived with his family on the West Bank in an area known as Masafer Yatta. His father, Nasser, runs a tiny cinder-block-walled gas station he built. Basel, a self-made activist and journalist, has taken it upon himself to chronicle the events occurring in his community. Using his phone, he records and films what the soldiers do, asking them how they would feel if it was done to them and their families. He is often threatened with arrest and physical harm. In one confrontation over a generator, a gunshot rings out, and a young man falls to the ground. His name is Harun, and he is paralyzed from the neck down. The Israeli soldier who shot Harun is not even identified.
The second main character is Yuval Abraham, a Jewish Israeli journalist writing stories about the expulsion, which not many people appear to be interested in reading. Mainstream media has almost entirely ignored the plight of the residents of Masafer Yatta. Yuval is sympathetic to the Palestinians’ plight. He is vilified by the soldiers and his fellow Israelis, who consider him a traitor. Yuval is also threatened with retribution for filming. Yuval, too, is credited as a director and writer of the film.
Basel and Yuval could be brothers. They are about the same height and build, and both have beards and Semitic features. They enjoy each other’s company. But at the end of the day, Basel can clearly see the difference between them. Only Yuval can drive his Volkswagen Golf freely from Masafer Yatta to his home because he has yellow license plates. Palestinians, who have green license plates, are forbidden to drive their vehicles at all. Eventually, their cars are taken from them. Out of the hospital, the paralyzed Harun is returned to his family, whose members have relocated to a cave.
The Israeli forces pour cement into cisterns, sever water lines, cut electricity, and even flatten playgrounds. If the Palestinians stage a protest, they are targeted for demolition by the army. Basel studied law. But the only work he can find is in construction. An area school, built secretly by men, women, and children, is demolished. Basel, who drowns his sorrow in lungfuls of hookah smoke, says he has not wanted a family because there is “no stability.” “No Other Land” combines footage shot by Basel’s family over 20 years with images and sound recorded by Adra, Abraham, and co-directors Hamdan Billal and Rachel Szor. Shot by the collective between 2019 and 2023, “No Other Land” is a devastating portrait of people forced to live in state-imposed despair and hopelessness.
‘No Other Land’
Rating: Not rated, violence, anguish, despair.
Cast: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Director: Adra, Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Writers: Adra, Abraham, Ballal, Szor
Running Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes
Where to Watch: Coolidge Corner Theater
Grade: A-
Boston Movie News 