- The film follows the destruction of a Palestinian community
- Four activists came together to direct it, one of whom was attacked weeks later
- It won an Oscar earlier this month
The film No Other Land made headlines earlier this month when it won the Oscar for Best Documentary.
Many predicted that the film would take the prize and they were correct. Its four directors’ acceptance speech became one of the ceremony’s most politically charged moments.
Read more: Oscars 2025: all the big moments
The film was in production between 2019 and 2023. A group of activists created the project, two of whom are Palestinian, two of whom are Israeli. Two are journalists and two are filmmakers by trade.
When they accepted the Oscar for Best Documentary, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, said: “There is a different path, a political solution, without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people.
“And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.”
What do we see in No Other Land?
The film follows the fight over Masafer Yatta, a community of around 20 villages in the West Bank. It depicts the Israeli military’s demolitions of homes in the village, which they wanted to turn into a military training zone. Its footage also shows the army razing a school and filling water wells with cement, so residents cannot rebuild.
Most of it was recorded on a camcorder by the Palestinian activist Basel Adra.
The documentary film first premiered at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it earned top documentary jury and audience prizes. It continued to earn critical acclaim and attention on the fall festival circuit. It played at the Toronto, Vancouver and New York film festivals. Despite this, the film still doesn’t have a U.S. distributor, so the filmmakers self-released it.
What happened to director Hamdan Ballal?
Hamdan Ballal was beaten and detained in the Palestinian village of Susiya. It lead to growing concerns for his wellbeing after Abraham reported that Israeli settlers had stormed the area and attacked him. Ballal suffered injuries to his head and stomach and was then blindfolded and detained.
There was a petition to free Hamdan Ballal and at the timing of writing gathered more than 5,000 signatures on Change.org. It urged the “immediate intervention to secure Ballal’s safety, prompt release, access to his family, and legal counsel.”
Later, Abraham confirmed that Ballal was now free.
He offered the update on X, “After being handcuffed all night and beaten at a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and on his way home to his family.”
