- Ballal was handcuffed and beaten at military base
- He is now free and on his way home to family
- Petition urging his immediate release was set up
Palestinian Oscar-winning director Hamdan Ballal has been freed after being beaten and detained in the Palestinian village of Susiya.
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His co-director of No Other Land, Yuval Abraham, provided 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.”
The news followed growing concerns about Ballal’s well-being and whereabouts after Abraham earlier reported that the director had been attacked by Israeli settlers who stormed the area with stones and sticks. Ballal suffered injuries to his head and stomach and was then blindfolded and detained.
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Free Hamdan Ballal petition
A petition to free Hamdan Ballal had been set up 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.”
Top documentarians Alex Gibney, Liz Garbus, Ezra Edelman and Maite Alberdi were among the signatories.
Oscar winner
Ballal, together with fellow Palestinian Masafer Yatta resident Basel Adra and Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, co-directed No Other Land, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary. The film chronicles the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers
During their acceptance speech, they took the opportunity to call attention to the destruction happening in Gaza.
“We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people,” said Adra. “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now.…No Other Land reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist.”
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger. We see each other,” added Abraham.
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, where it played at the Toronto, Vancouver and New York film festivals. Despite this, the film still doesn’t have a U.S. distributor, leading the filmmakers to self-release the film.
Documentary festival CPH:DOX – which is currently underway in the Danish capital of Copenhagen – put out a statement saying it was “deeply horrified and shocked” by the reports of what had happened to Ballal.
“No Other Land is a testimony to injustice and displacement, and we stand in solidarity with the film’s directors, including Hamdan Ballal, in their fight to document the reality on the ground,” it said.
