Palestine Documentary No Other Land Wins Oscar
The Palestine documentary No Other Land won the Oscar for best documentary feature film. The film, made by Palestinian and Israeli film makers, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham. The film garnered significant recognition recently, especially after US distributors refused to take the film. No Other Land exposes the brutality and injustices of Israeli Occupation against the Palestinians. The film also won the Documentary Film Award at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival last February.
Adra, the Palestinian film maker, risks everything, including life-long hellish detention if caught, to document the destruction of his hometown at the southern edge of the West Bank. His voices reached deaf ears, until he befriends Abraham, an Israeli journalist and filmmaker, who helped Adra greatly in amplifying his story.
The documentary was filmed over four years from 2019 to 2023. It also include footages from Adra’s childhood showing his activist father bravely standing up against Israeli soldiers and settlers in order to stop appropriation of Palestinian land. The film moves through camcorder footage from Adra’s personal archive. He captures Israeli soldiers bulldozing the village school and filling water wells with cement to prevent people from rebuilding.
“About two months ago, I became a father…My hope to my daughter (is) that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settlers, violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements. We call on the world to take serious actions”, Adra said after receiving the Academy Award.
“When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal…We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life. There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people”, said Abraham.
Also Read: ‘No Other Land’: The Palestine Documentary US Distributors Won’t Touch
While No Other Land exposes grinding cruelty faced by Palestinians from the Israelis, it also celebrates the astonishing resilience of Palestinian population. The film is mostly based in Masafer Yatta, a cluster of Palestinian hamlets that has existed for generations, where Adra grew up. The villagers’ acts of resilience range from protests, activism, and political organizing to the smallest acts of care for the land.
“We made this film as Palestinians and Israelis because, together, our voices are stronger”, Abraham added. While calling out the Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli government to quit the “atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people”, he urged Hamas, the resistance movement and political power in Gaza to release all the Israeli hostages under their captivity.
Calling out the US Foreign Policy, he said, “Why can’t you see that we are intertwined, that my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe?”.
“No Other Land” director Basel Adra: “We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.” | #Oscars pic.twitter.com/NzoqLKiBSJ
— Variety (@Variety) March 3, 2025
Abraham and Adra sparked backlashes after winning Berlin International Film Award, as they used their winners’ speech to condemn the Israeli occupation of Palestine. “I am free to move where I want in this land, but Basel, like millions of Palestinians, is locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end”, Abraham said during the speech.
Also Read: ‘No Other Land’: The Film On Israel’s Occupation Of Palestine Nominated For Oscar
The speech sent shockwave throughout the German cultural establishment, and politicians issued condemnation of the duo. Berlin’s official online portal also faced backlash for claiming the film about Israel’s takeover in the occupied West Bank contained “antisemitic tendencies”.
“We faced so many risks in the field, on the ground. My home was invaded. My cameras were confiscated by Israeli soldiers. I was physically attacked… It’s sad that U.S. distributors so far are unwilling to take even a small risk in showing this documentary,” Basel said in an interview with Democracy Now.
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After being picked up for distribution in 24 countries, the film did not find distributor in US, which analysts read as the bigotry against anything made from Palestine. The lack of distributors from US underscored the alleged notion of a censorious atmosphere in the entertainment industry, especially in the US, which seeks to curtail criticism against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It sparked discussions on censorship and political representation of the film. By bagging the award, the film beat “Porcelain War,” “Sugarcane,” “Black Box Diaries” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État”, in the category.
