OSCARS 2025: No Other Land (2024)

Since I was a kid, I can recall hearing people – including my Jewish relatives – describe the on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine as the continuation of an old war that has been raging for centuries, a fight between irreconcilable ideologies that can never be resolved. It's often phrased in Biblical terms, as if the maps were the same two thousand years ago. It's a wide-spread lie and a ridiculous one. Israel is younger than my grandparents, the details of its creation available to anyone with access to half-decent history books. A list of Israeli war crimes committed in Palestine can be found easily. Here in the social media and cell phones era, documented evidence of such crimes have become increasingly common. Here comes more of just that, in the form of an Oscar-nominated documentary. “No Other Land” filmed before the most recent escalation of violence in the Middle East, it is nevertheless more documentation of an illegal occupation and American tax dollars at work. 

Filmed over a five year period, “No Other Land” is primarily the work of Basel Arda and Yuval Abraham. Basel is a native resident of Masafer Yatta, an area in the West Bank. He's been documenting the Israeli army forcing out the local inhabitants, seizing their land, and destroying their home since 2022. Yuval is an Israeli journalist and filmmaker, against the military occupation of Gaza and sympathetic to the Palestinian's plight. Together, they begin to more thoroughly show the families torn apart by the army, the violent suppression of local protests, and the resilience of those surviving being displaced. 

“No Other Land” is an on-the-ground documentary. It gives those of us in more privileged countries a first-person perspective of what is happening in Masafer Yatta. What is captured on-camera is often heart-breaking. We see families forced to stand back and watch as their homes are literally torn to pieces by bulldozers. Displaced families are forced to live in caves, the camera showing us their desperate attempts to make inhospitable furnishings more like home: A TV hanging on a cave wall, a kid playing with a little toy top, a kitten fed a last bit of water. These deeply sad moments are framed by more bracing ones. A protestor is shot on-camera, eventually being left paralyzed. In the second half, Basel is beaten and dragged off by soldiers, his camera recording it all as it happens. It puts us in the shoes of those living under the rule of an occupying army. 

What we see, recorded by Basel and Yuval's cameras, is infuriating. We are told that the army needs this land, for a place to train their soldiers. The army places papers on homes and structure, notifying them that their land is being seized and will be destroyed. This extends even to a children's playground. Now, what is the strategic value of doing that? Why engineer such animosity and hatred among people, as we see the soldiers bullying and screaming at any and all protestors? Obviously, it is cruelty for cruelty's sake, punishment being dealt out by entitled imperialists. We see a clip of Yuval being interviewed on Israeli television, arguing for the humanity of the displaced Palestinians. The Zionist co-host insists that the people in Masafer Yatta are on land that belongs to their military. It's so frustrating to see anyone look at such obvious injustices and side with the oppressors. 

As a piece of cinematic journalism, “No Other Land” is certainly motivating. That it is partially the creation of someone in Israel is also interesting. Yuval is an outsider in Masafer Yatta. He often has to explain his position, that he's not a Zionist and hopes to bring attention to the plight of those living under the occupation. One of the repeated interviewees openly questions if Yuval is a spy, a thought that may or may not be sarcastic. It's absolutely a noble cause. However, the handful of scenes devoted to Yuval and Basel's conversations feel out-of-place. Not to say that such personal moments don't have their place in a narrative film. However, hearing Yuval talk about how his writing about the conflict receive middling reactions on social media or discussing how he feels about what he sees feels inessential to what the film is documenting. Anytime a filmmaker inserts themselves into a documentary, it does raise questions about their motivations.

Concerns about the inevitable egotism of the filmmaker worming its way into their work aside, “No Other Land” is obviously important filmmaking. First and foremost, because many people have political motivation to deny that these things happened. Whatever thoughts you may have about Hamas or actions carried out by Palestinian forces, there's nothing in my mind that justifies what we see being done in this film. As the “No Other Land's” epilogue points out, all of this was before October 7th, 2023. Predictably, things have only gotten worst since then. I'm well aware that “No Other Land” was shot, edited, and presented with a specific goal in mind. It is, effectively, propaganda. But come on. You don't need to be Palestinian to see what's going on in Gaza and abroad is a sickening travesty. Criticism of Israel is not criticism of the entire Jewish culture, despite what some might say, and having survived one genocide does nothing to justify another. Anyway, I'll wrap this up simply by saying that “No Other Land” is the definition of filmmaking as activism and shows the power of what pointing a camera at injustices can accomplish. [9/10]