NO OTHER LAND

(director/writer: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballai; cinematographer: Rachel Szor; editors: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballai; music: Julius Pollux Rothlaender; cast:  Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballai; Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Fabian Greenberg, Bard Kjoge Ronning, Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballai; Antipode Films; 2024-Palestine/Norway-Hebrew, Arabic, English, with English subtitles)

“A challenging political documentary on events in Palestine’s West Bank region of Masafer Yatta.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A challenging political documentary on events in Palestine’s West Bank region of Masafer Yatta that took place from 2019 to 2023. The gut-retching documentary was filmed by four young Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers (2 Palestinians & 2 Israelis) showing the pain, the divisiveness and raw emotions of the ongoing conflict in the Middle-East. It has the lawyer activist Basel Adra and the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham try to make sense of things from their POVs. 

We’re informed that in 2022, in the West Bank, Masafer Yatta, a collection of of some 20 villages of over a thousand Palestinians, were ordered to vacate by the IDF because they needed it for a training facility and the Israeli courts ruled in their favor. The area was then razed by bulldozers. 

The frank dialogue over the incident between the two intense men and their respective teams, shows their friendship despite their differences. It indicates that it’s better to try and find a peaceful solution rather than to stop communicating.

Adra narrates the documentary.

It played at the Berlin International Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 1/15/2025  GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com