No Other Land

“No Other Land” is made by four filmmakers: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal fromPalestine, and Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor from Israel. Together they are credited with writing, directing, and editing the film, which spans from the summer of 2019 right up until the winter of 2023. Text at the end mentions that filming wrapped up before October of last year. Basel Adra’s voice succinctly but unhurriedly tells you about the time he first realized his parents were activists and the realization of the importance of resistance in their lives. The film isn’t a larger commentary on the crisis as a whole, but chooses to focus only on how families and villages continue to be displaced in Masafer Yatta, a region in the West Bank. Basel, armed with a camera, social media, and a press card, records videos and organizes community protests against people invading the lands. Through his eyes, you see not just the strife of the people of Masafer Yatta, but also their dismay towards the apathy shown by the rest of the world. There are many scenes of residents lugging their belongings out of homes that are about to be demolished—mattresses, cupboards, washing machines—denied the basic right to live and use these mundane, boring daily objects. The film itself is not loud; it doesn’t yell at you or make you feel bad for not paying attention. It’s almost languid, even when it shows you protests. Like Basel and his family, the film too is calm and calculated. The shaky, unstable camerawork adds to the realism, asking the viewer what Adra asks himself, “Somebody watches something. They are touched. And then?”