NO OTHER LAND (2024) review

written by: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor
produced by: Fabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning
directed by: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor
rated: not rated
runtime: 95 min.
U.S. release date: January 31, 2025

Unless you’re a history major or well-versed in the Middle East, it’s confounding to determine where one starts understanding the division between the two cultures. “No Other Land” is the most crucial recent documentary that comes to mind and provides a ground-level understanding of the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine. It’s the first documentary about the occupation of Palestine since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 and also the first to shed light on the systemic policy of forced expulsion through home demolitions. While it is a harrowing and frustrating viewing experience, seeing such determination amid relentless oppression is enlightening and humbling.

A young Palestinian activist named Basel Adra serves as narrator, reflecting on his past and present while sharing guerilla-style video footage shot by either himself or family and friends. His goal is to let the world know how Palestinians living in the West Bank mountain region of Masafer Yatta (home to roughly twenty villages) have been forcefully displaced by Israel’s military for as long as he can remember. At the risk of being arrested or worse, Basel continues to record the gradual excavation of his homeland as Israeli soldiers arrive with bulldozers and tanks after eviction notices are placed on homes, schools, and playgrounds to make room for Israeli military training zones.

Israel isn’t offering the Palestinians living in Masafar Yatta other living options. That would require the government and military to see them as human beings. In one of many bulldoze scenes, a woman can be heard screaming, “My daughters are still in there!” referring to her home as soldiers are pushing her out. Without missing a beat, the soldier heartlessly replies, “Doesn’t matter.” There are no other options because the Palestinian people are not even considered Others but rather just a nuisance with no other land.

As we follow Basel, we see him befriend Yuval Abraham, a Jewish Israeli journalist, or rather Yuval befriends Basel. It’s an important distinction, considering the rest of the Israelis we see are either authority figures or military. Yuval and Basel form a connection akin to brothers and are often mistaken for each other since, Yuval admits, they look similar. They also are usually found together wherever the military is demolishing Palestinian property. They have partnered with Hamdan Ballal (a Palestinian photographer, filmmaker, and farmer from Susya) and Rachel Szor (an Israeli cinematographer, editor, and director from Jerusalem) to direct “No Other Land,” composing the footage they’ve taken into a sequential timeline that cohesively tells the story of their experiences.

While Basel and Yuval are confidants and partners in activism, there is no denying their individual realities: one of them still faces oppression and potential violence on a daily level, while the other experiences freedom and stability.

In narration, Basel shares how his earliest memory was of Israeli soldiers raiding his house and arresting his father, a Palestinian activist, long before his son was born. He was five years old, but it’s become a permanent core memory. It’s something he’s reminded of when he sees other fathers taken away from their sons. Having been raised in occupied territory under Apartheid conditions, Basel has always felt the lens of the camera, whether he was being filmed or he captured those around him experiencing suffering and dehumanization. When nothing else can be accomplished to end such insanity, at least documenting it all will irrefutably confirm what has occurred.

At the start of “No Man’s Land,” a title indicator provides a season and a year: summer 2019. Yet what we see could have easily occurred at any time within the last forty years. The Israeli government declared Masafer Yatta a “closed military training zone,” which became more of an excuse to displace the Palestinian families who’ve been living there for centuries to create Israeli settlements on their land. The order may have been given in 1980, but it wasn’t until 2022 that an Israeli court resolved the petition. Still, Israeli authorities weren’t waiting around all that time. Instead, they were steadily maintaining a conflict while pointing their finger at Palestine. Many of the villages in Masafar Yatta have been wiped off Israeli maps despite their existence long before the establishment of Israel. Yet in “No Other Land,” we see Palestinians forced into caves where the resilient people make do with what they have, hanging flat-screen televisions on the cavern walls. Not long after, footage shows Israeli soldiers dragging away a generator that provides their electricity in the cave.

As much as we get to know Basel and Yuval and those who surround them throughout “No Other Land,” we also come to recognize familiar Israeli faces who are involved in the demolition process. One such character is a guy named Ilan, who hands out eviction notices and oversees the plunder of Masafar Yatta. He says very little as he breezes through the land with his assistants in tow, giving out orders. Ilan ignores the desperate Palestinians, asking him why he is doing this to them, at times begging the heartless individual to stop, but he sees past them like one who is blind to a beggar. It’s all so unbelievably frustrating to watch, yet the light in all of this evil is seeing the Palestinian people refuse to roll over and die.

What happens when there is nowhere to go? The loss of land that the Palestinians experience leaves them with very few options. They can rebuild only for the cycle to continue. There is no room for sheep to graze, nor is there any more land to be cultivated by farmers. They are left to rent space in crowded Palestinian cities. A community is wherever the people are, but when they are so scattered, it’s challenging to maintain what they have.

“No Other Land” shows viewers how Palestinians like Basel have relatable desires: to live an everyday life with family and friends. It also shows there are activists on both sides determined to fight for the helpless, envisioning a land where Palestinians are sovereign and free.

At the time “No Other Land” debuted at the Berlin Film Festival almost a year ago, at least 29,000 Palestinians — more than 12,000 of them children — had been murdered on this land. As if that’s not reason enough for this unforgettable and enraging documentary to be out there for all to see, the fact that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is still relevant confirms the need for a wider audience. Hopefully, the film’s Oscar nomination will help with that.

RATING: ****