Basel Adra, a Palestinian, and Yuval Abraham, an Israeli, spent five years making a movie that depicts daily life in Adraβs village under Israeli occupation. The resulting film, βNo Other Land,β has been hailed as one of the year's most powerful documentaries, winning prizes at international film festivals.
Itβs also stoked controversy, prompted death threats for its makers and β despite the acclaim β remains without an American distributor.
Opening this week in France and next week in the United Kingdom, the feature-length documentary has already sold in many international territories. Its status as an Academy Awards contender remains intact β after hosting it during the New York Film Festival, the Lincoln Center will screen the film for a one-week, Oscar-qualifying run beginning Friday. But the filmmakers believe the monthslong inability to find a U.S. distributor boils down to political reasons, with Election Day in the presidential contest between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump looming.
βMaybe theyβre afraid to be defunded if Trump wins,β says Abraham, speaking in an interview from Paris alongside Adra. βBut Basel risked his life for years since he was a young boy to film this material. That requires a lot of courage. Can we not have one distributor with the courage, OK, to take a certain risk, but to distribute such an acclaimed and such an important documentary?β
βNo Other Landβ began long before the current chapter of the war in Gaza. Itβs told largely from the perspective of Adra, who was born in Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the occupied West Bank.
The area, a rugged mountainous region south of Hebron, has for decades been a site of protest against the Israeli government, which ordered Palestinians off the land to make room for a military training ground.
In 1980, the Israeli military declared Masafer Yatta a closed βfiring zone." Israeli authorities said the residents β Arab Bedouin who practice a traditional form of agriculture and animal herding and have lived on the land since before 1967 β only used the area part of the year and had no permanent structures there at the time.
Adra was born into this; his father was an activist on behalf of the community and Adra was five when his mother first took him to a demonstration.
Following a 2022 court decision, the army set up checkpoints and regularly demolished community structures β including a school. A camera, Adra says, βbecame the only tool beside our steadfastness.β He captured the regular demolitions of homes, the violent encounters with Israeli settlers and the ongoing effect the struggle has had on the villagers.
βI started filming when we started to end,β he says in the film, which takes place between 2019 and 2023.
Itβs a long-term, on-the-ground portrait of the realities of life under Israeli military law. Families are uprooted. Children grow up in poverty. People die. But its makers never envisioned how much worse things could get.
Made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective (the other two directors are Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor), βNo Other Landβ wrapped shooting last October, just as the Hamas attack occurred and Israelβs war in Gaza began.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants killed over 1,200 people across southern Israel, taking some 250 people hostage. Israel's retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, over half of whom are women and children, say Palestinian health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. In the West Bank, frequent Israeli raids into Palestinian cities and towns, as well as mounting violence from Jewish settlers, have driven up the death toll since Oct. 7 to more than 760 killed.
βI look at the news just over the past few days. Hundreds of people in Gaza being killed, Israeli hostages dying, massacres happening every day, nonstop,β says Abraham, a Jewish journalist from southern Israel. βAnd weβre here showing a film in air-conditioned cinemas. Thereβs a big dissonance in participating in festivals when nothing is festive and everything is becoming worse.β
The war in Gaza β and now the war in Lebanon and the specter of one with Iran β has inevitably altered the landscape for βNo Other Land,β a film that marries documentary filmmaking and activism to put a human face to Palestinian suffering. It's won awards in Berlin, Switzerland, Vancouver and South Korea. But for Adra, little of that matters.
βWe made this movie to not lose Masafer Yatta, to not lose our homes,β says Adra. βItβs very successful for the movie, but when I go back to the reality, itβs changing for the worse. So thereβs this conflict on my mind. The movie is succeeding and has publicity, people want to watch it, but itβs not helping whatβs happening on the ground. It doesnβt change anything.β
βNo Other Landβ was enmeshed in controversy soon after its February debut at the Berlin Film Festival. While accepting the documentary award, Adra spoke about the difficulty of doing so βwhen there are tens of thousands of my people being slaughtered and massacred by Israel in Gaza.β Abraham called for an end to Israelβs occupation of the Palestinian territories.
In Germany, where anti-Israel statements have acute sensitivity, numerous politicians criticized the filmmakers for making no mention of Israeli victims or Hamas. Claudia Roth, Germanyβs culture minister, said the speeches were βshockingly one-sided.β Kai Wegner, mayor of Berlin, called them βintolerable relativization.β Ron Prosor, Israelβs ambassador to Germany, called it βblatant antisemitic discourse.β
Abraham, who says he received death threats, was βenragedβ by the response. As a descendent of Holocaust victims, he believes labeling criticism of Israeli policies as antisemitic empties the phrase of meaning.
βWe called for equality between Palestinians and Israelis. We called for an end to the occupation. We spoke about what we see as the political roots of the violence that exists in our land. To me, this the most important message that there can be,β says Abraham. βIt feels like weβre living in the β1984β novel where you make these kinds of statements and thatβs somehow labeled as controversial.β
Adra and Abraham's relationship, one they hope can stand for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, is a central component of βNo Other Land.β
Together, they rush to document the arrival of tanks or military bulldozers; they lament the little attention their social media posts or articles find online; they ponder their futures.
But there is also tension in their differences. One lives under civilian law, the other under military law. Whether Adra will be able to pass through checkpoints to travel abroad is always in question. In the film, their Palestinian co-director, Ballal, is seen skeptically questioning Abrahamβs place in the struggle.
βIt could be your brother or friend who destroyed my home,β Ballal tells him.
βAs an Israeli, I believe that the status quo is harmful for Israelis for the simple fact that security in the land is mutual,β Abraham tells The Associated Press. βPeople are dependent on one another. We cannot expect to have security if Palestinians donβt have freedom.β
Even before the war in Gaza, Adra and Abraham struggled to gain international attention for Masafer Yatta.
Now, their cause is dwarfed by the destruction in Gaza, and itβs difficult for them to feel any hope. Days after Oct. 7, Adraβs cousin was shot and killed point blank by a settler, an incident captured in the film. βFor me,β says Adra, βthereβs nothing clear where this is going.β
In meetings with distributors, the filmmakers say, there's been a lot of interest. βThey say they love the film, but then they're hesitant,β says Abraham.
Whether U.S. film distributors have grown too cautious politically was also a prominent question for the Trump drama βThe Apprentice,β which only found a home with Briarcliff Entertainment shortly before it was released last month. βUnion,β a well-received documentary about labor organization at Amazon, recently resorted to self-distributing its release.
βOnce upon a time, American film distributors and exhibitors embraced controversy β especially when it came to acclaimed movies whose controversy was inextricably intertwined with their humanity,β the New York magazine critic Bilge Ebiri wrote of βNo Other Land.β βAre these companies holding back out of budgetary reasons, out of cowardice, out of political disagreement?β
βItβs not allowing the conversation even to begin by silencing our voices, the voices of a Palestinian who is resisting the occupation and the voice of an Israeli who is also against occupation and believes in a future of equality and justice for everyone,β Abraham says. βWhy are you blocking these kinds of voices from entering the space of mainstream cinema in the U.S.?β (The film also lacks an Israeli distributor.)
However it gets seen, the filmmakers hope βNo Other Landβ remains a vital document to the current crisis.
βWe wanted to send the message that the status quo is very harmful and it should change,β says Adra. βA political solution is needed. That was before Oct. 7. We donβt want to get to a day such as Oct. 7. We want to warn global leaders to take actions and stop being complicit with the occupation.β
βWhatβs happening is very, very sad and tragic,β he adds. βI never imagined in my lifetime that something like this can happen, and that the world would let it go on.β
More than half of human trafficking incidents remained unsolved in Canada by police as the number of incidents increased over the past decade, according to new data released Friday.
More than 44 years after human remains were found in a rural area of Markham, Ont., police are revealing that the deceased was an inmate who had escaped prison just a month before his body was found.
Hundreds of people are flocking to see a rare site in Pennsylvania: remnants of a historic town that is usually underwater.
An appeal has been denied to extend the sentence of an Ontario trucker who killed a woman in his Edmonton hotel room in 2011.
Manitoba RCMP are looking for more information after the remains of an infant were identified.
Toronto police say 59 suspects are facing a total of 300 charges in connection with an auto theft and re-vinning probe.
The Dodgers' most valuable pet: Decoy Ohtani, dog of Shohei, has become a fixture of Dodgers β and dog β fandom.
In the early days of Russiaβs invasion of Ukraine, Adam Oake, a Canadian with no prior military training, sold all of his Toronto Maple Leafs memorabilia to buy a plane ticket.
Talented though they may be, monkeys will never type out the complete works of William Shakespeare, or even a short book, a new study suggests.
In the early days of Russiaβs invasion of Ukraine, Adam Oake, a Canadian with no prior military training, sold all of his Toronto Maple Leafs memorabilia to buy a plane ticket.
An appeal has been denied to extend the sentence of an Ontario trucker who killed a woman in his Edmonton hotel room in 2011.
Toronto police say 59 suspects are facing a total of 300 charges in connection with an auto theft and re-vinning probe.
Manitoba RCMP are looking for more information after the remains of an infant were identified.
More than half of human trafficking incidents remained unsolved in Canada by police as the number of incidents increased over the past decade, according to new data released Friday.
A CN train derailed near Beiseker, Alta., on Friday morning.
A video that purports to show election fraud in Georgia by a man who claims to be from Haiti is fake and the work of "Russian influence actors," U.S. intelligence officials said Friday.
A gangland shootout set off a clash involving hundreds in the city of Poitiers overnight, leaving five people injured, French officials said on Friday, highlighting the challenges faced by the new government in tackling violent crime.
Donald Trump has made his opposition to transgender rights central to his closing argument before Election Day, using demeaning language and misrepresentations to paint an exceedingly narrow slice of the U.S. population as a threat to national identity.
Turkish prosecutors accuse 47 doctors, nurses and other medical workers of killing 10 newborns since last year through neglect or malpractice that aimed to defraud the country's medical system.
A concrete roof above the entrance of a railway station in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad collapsed Friday, killing at least 13 people, with more feared buried under the rubble.
Russia's top diplomat on Friday hosted his North Korean counterpart for talks amid reports that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its military in the war in Ukraine.
An aggressive Chinese hacking campaign is the most active state cyber threat to Canada, the country's signals intelligence agency said on Wednesday, in the latest warning about clandestine activity by Beijing.
Canada will need a profound shift in political priorities if the country is to ramp up spending to meet its international security obligations.
Jagmeet Singh says the NDP will not support the Bloc QuΓ©bΓ©cois and Conservative leaders to help them bring down the Liberal government.
A regional public health department in Idaho is no longer providing COVID-19 vaccines to residents in six counties after a narrow decision by its board.
Bird flu has been spreading faster in the European Union this season than a milder 2023, raising concerns of a repeat of previous crises that led to the deaths of tens of millions of poultry and renewing fears that it could expand to humans.
B.C.βs Interior Health Authority was fined nearly $250,000 after 10 workers were exposed to illicit substances at a hospital in Penticton.
Talented though they may be, monkeys will never type out the complete works of William Shakespeare, or even a short book, a new study suggests.
As Phobos, one of Marsβ two moons, passed in front of the sun, it cast a lumpy, potato-shaped shadow on the sunβs face as well as on the Martian surface.
The oldest known surviving tombstone in the United States is an elaborate display of wealth β an intricately carved slab of black limestone initially laid in the floor of the second church of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent British settlement in North America.
βNo Other Land,β has been hailed as one of the year's most powerful documentaries, but it's stoked controversy, prompted death threats for its makers and β despite the acclaim β remains without an American distributor.
Mariah Carey is finally ready.
Rapper Young Thug is a free man after pleading guilty to gang, drug and gun charges.
Whichever candidate wins the U.S. president election next Tuesday, experts say investors will be relieved to shed some uncertainty over what kinds of policies to expect.
Air Canada on Friday raised its annual core profit forecast and announced share buybacks, as the country's largest carrier benefits from strong demand for international travel.
New changes are coming into effect that aim to protect bank customers in the event of a scam or address other bank-related issues.
Matthew Horsnell began falling asleep for no reason when he was in sixth grade.
A Windsor teenβs social media post showing off a distinctive Windsor pizza topping has gone viral, drawing millions of views worldwide and sparking new curiosity about Windsor-style pizza.
Thieves blew open the door of an art gallery in the southern Netherlands and stole two works from a famous series of screen prints by American pop artist Andy Warhol and left two more badly damaged in the street as they fled the scene of the botched heist, the gallery owner said Friday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated their eighth World Series championship with a downtown parade and a stadium gathering featuring Shohei Ohtani and other star players on Friday.
Hana Wakimoto shot a 4-under 68 on Friday to maintain her lead after the second round of the LPGA's Toto Japan Classic.
The Dodgers' most valuable pet: Decoy Ohtani, dog of Shohei, has become a fixture of Dodgers β and dog β fandom.
Toronto police say 59 suspects are facing a total of 300 charges in connection with an auto theft and re-vinning probe.
Several Ford vehicles have been recalled in Canada due to issues with braking systems, steering and child car seat tethers.
Volkswagen has informed employee representatives that it wants to close at least three plants in Germany, the head of the company's works council said Monday.
A Windsor teenβs social media post showing off a distinctive Windsor pizza topping has gone viral, drawing millions of views worldwide and sparking new curiosity about Windsor-style pizza.
Auston Matthews has come face to face with his look-alike. On Thursday, the Maple Leafs star met seven-year-old Grayson Joseph, who went viral for dressing up as an Auston Matthews hockey card.
A Halifax junk remover shares some of his companyβs strangest discoveries.
When Leah arrived at work directing traffic around a construction site, she never expected to see a van painted in all sorts of bright colours, and covered in eclectic decorations, including a stuffed moose attached to its roof.
After 14 years of repairing and selling bicycles out of the garage of her home, a Guelph, Ont. womanβs efforts have ended β for now, at least.
Epcor says it has removed more than 20,000 goldfish from an Edmonton stormwater pond.
Witches and warlocks have been flocking to New Brunswick waterways this month, as a new Halloween tradition ripples across the province.
New Brunswicker Jillea Godinβs elaborate cosplay pieces attract thousands to her online accounts, as well as requests from celebrities for their own pieces.
A new resident at a Manitoba animal rescue has waddled her way into people's hearts.
New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone's all-expenses-paid trip to Dubai for a climate conference last December violated the city's Code of Conduct for Council Members and the Community Charter, the city's ethics commissioner has ruled.
Mounties in Chilliwack say one man was arrested after a shots fired incident early Friday morning, which led to homes and businesses being evacuated and a large police response.
Police on southern Vancouver Island are issuing a warning about the dangers of deer rutting season after a dog was gored to death by a buck earlier this week.
Police arrested two people in downtown Toronto Friday afternoon in connection with a stolen vehicle investigation that resulted in a chase, which was captured on video.
Toronto police say 59 suspects are facing a total of 300 charges in connection with an auto theft and re-vinning probe.
Drake has released a new music video for his track 'No Face,' and Scarborough residents will likely know exactly where it was filmed.
A CN train derailed near Beiseker, Alta., on Friday morning.
The Calgary Real Estate Board says October home sales were mostly flat compared with last year's levels, but remained around one-quarter higher than long-term trends for the month.
The iconic Prairie rockers Bachman-Turner Overdrive announced a spring 2025 cross-country tour Friday that includes two Calgary concerts, April 11 and 12, at the Grey Eagle Casino.
Internal documents show the National Capital Commission struggled to maintain the ice on the Rideau Canal Skateway last winter and took what it called a 'manageable risk' to lower their standards for what qualifies as thick enough ice in order to squeeze a few more skating days into the season.
The Crown has dropped charges against a woman who was filmed pulling another woman's hijab down during a protest at Ottawa City Hall.
Ottawa paramedics say a child suffered non-life threatening injuries after being struck by a driver on Viewmount Drive Friday afternoon.
Public transit users in Montreal were faced with service disruptions on two fronts on Friday as part of the REM and the green line on the Metro were shut down.
More than 150 cars have been stolen so far this year from the Fairview Pointe-Claire parking lot, making it by far the most popular location for thieves on the Island of Montreal.
The office of the registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada was served with a legal notice on Friday by a Quebec civil rights group challenging the high court's steadfast refusal to translate its historic decisions into French.
Police have issued a warrant for a man in connection with a stabbing in Wetaskiwin earlier this week.
An appeal has been denied to extend the sentence of an Ontario trucker who killed a woman in his Edmonton hotel room in 2011.
Jasper National Park says it will be keeping a close eye on its caribou herds as it continues to repair and rebuild its upcoming breeding centre.
A 19-person cabinet has been announced in New Brunswick, the day before Saturdayβs swearing-in for the premier and ministers.
A measles outbreak has been declared in New Brunswickβs Zone 3, which includes Fredericton and the upper Saint John River Valley.
The RCMP in Yarmouth, N.S., is investigating the sudden deaths of two people known to each other.
Manitoba RCMP are looking for more information after the remains of an infant were identified.
The cost to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrians is rising.
A 25-year-old man has been charged with multiple offences after he allegedly shot another man with a shotgun during a dispute at a North End home last month.
The Regina Police Service (RPS) is asking the public for tips after a home in the North Central neighbourhood was shot at early Thursday morning.
With almost $1 million in unpaid parking tickets, Moose Jaw plans to tow and impound vehicles whose owners haven't paid their fines.
Those who heat their homes with electricity in Saskatchewan will continue to see a 60 per cent reduction on their federal carbon tax charge, according to SaskPower.
Erick Buhr, the man accused of killing his grandmother, Viola Erb, is now representing himself at his second degree murder trial.
Waterloo Regional Police are putting out a stern reminder about fireworks safety after a concerning display in Breslau.
A Guelph man is facing assault charges after a stabbing in downtown Guelph.
SaskPower has been ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for violating workplace safety rules, but the victim won't receive any of the money.
A newly elected Saskatchewan Party government got back to work on Thursday, with returning and new government members meeting for the first time.
A 50-year-old Dundurn, Sask. man has been arrested and charged with child pornography offences following an online investigation that began in September.
With the surging number of homeless encampments in Ontario cities, Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre has joined other big city mayors in asking the province to back them up when they try and prohibit encampments.
Two males, including one young offender, were arrested Thursday evening after a shooting at a grocery store on Notre Dame Avenue in Sudbury.
Police in northern Ontario say a razor blade was found in a child's candy on Halloween night.
The London Fire Department said a blaze that destroyed a south London townhouse Friday may have been caused by a dog left home alone.
Since August 2023, detectives from the Niagara Regional Police Service have been investigating an allegation of sexual assault by a man against a 15-year-old girl.
Nine people have been certified as candidates to fill the vacant seat on Kincardine council, following the untimely passing of Doug Kennedy.
One man has been charged following a multi-vehicle crash on Highway 400 that caused traffic backups for hours on Thursday.
Michael LβEnfant, accused of violent sexual assaults, was granted bail on Friday with conditions, including to not have contact with females.
Homeless Barrie residents questions mayor's call to seek action that would ban encampments.
Windsor police have charged a 25-year-old man with first-degree murder in the death of a 69-year-old man in south-central Windsor.
A Michigan man is set to stand trial next year in connection to the first-degree murder of a Windsor woman.
Windsor police are on scene of an active investigation in the 1200 block of Central Avenue.
Police on southern Vancouver Island are issuing a warning about the dangers of deer rutting season after a dog was gored to death by a buck earlier this week.
Concerns are growing about British Columbiaβs local economy as the possibility of another province-wide labour disruption at ports looms.
Basketball was Harriette Mackenzie's safe space growing up. She knew from an early age that she was different, and the court was where she could escape.
More than two years after Alannah Brown and Douglas Barker were found dead north of Penticton, police are asking for help identifying a vehicle they believe was associated with the crime.
Dave Lindsey began growing giant pumpkins to bring a bit of magic to his grandkids' Halloween.
A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.
The University of Lethbridge Pronghorn Athletics Annual Safe Ride Home campaign is making a return this year, but with a new name.
A three goal outburst in the first period of Wednesday nightβs game against the Swift Current Broncos was all the Hurricanes need on their way to 3-1 win at home against the Swift Current Broncos.
A 27-year-old security guard has been charged after an incident where a bar patron sustained life-threatening injuries.
A 40-year-old suspect has been charged with sexual assault following an incident Wednesday in Sault Ste. Marie.
Juanita Migwans β or 'Winnie,' as her family calls her β of M'Chigeeng First Nation has been missing for almost a month.
The City of Greater Sudbury has been chosen to host the Ontario 55+ Summer Games next year.
School staff are being struck more often, students are fighting more frequently, and police are increasingly being called to school grounds, according to data compiled and released this week by the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers' Association.
Newfoundland and Labrador's auditor general has issued a warning about the province's financial position as the government announced it would finish the 2024-25 fiscal year with a higher-than-expected deficit.
Police in Newfoundland and Labrador have charged an off-duty RCMP officer for allegedly driving while impaired, following a crash on Sunday.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at ΒιΆΉΣ°ΚΣ. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.Β Read about us.
