This fall, dozens of great movies were showcased at the top film festivals across the globe, and many of those that screened at Venice, Telluride, Toronto, New York, and AFI Fest will shape the awards season over the next three months. The very best reviewed of these (higher on Metacritic than “The Brutalist,” “Anora,” and “Nickel Boys,” or any other documentary that premiered) is “No Other Land,” a film that would appear destined for an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary. If only it could find a distributor.
What “ No Other Land ” documents, with a clear-eyed bravery of filmmakers willing to risk their lives and freedom to capture it, is how rural Palestinian communities, that have existed for generations in the West Bank, are unable to live the simplest existence. We watch their homes get knocked down by the Israeli military, and how as they desperately try to salvage their possessions they are faced with the impossible decision to flee the only life they’ve ever known, or try to rebuild and risk the same result. For co-director Basel Adra , 28, who grew up in the small town of Masafer Yatta, it’s a struggle that has dominated his adult life.
When Adra, along with co-director Yuval Abraham , was on the Toolkit podcast he talked about life in his small farming community. “Masafer Yatta is completely under the Israeli military control. If we want to build a home, we need the permission,” said Adra.
“In the past decade, Israel has made our life.
