NO OTHER LAND - Mark Reviews Movies

No Other Land, Cinetic Media

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 30, 2025

There is too much history in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to truly understand it. The decades-long course of it has changed so much in terms of borders, politics, and so much else that to even attempt to discuss what has happened over those years feels incredibly difficult. Add to it all of the various perspectives on its origins, every shift over the decades, and what could be done to resolve the multiple crises of the past, present, and, likely, future, and the topic exists as seemingly impossible one to dissect. Wisely, No Other Land is primarily concerned with the here and now of its narrative, which follows a pair of journalists/activists as they witness an entire community in West Bank be displaced with increasing speed and hostility.

Even such a description of the events of this film, directed by a collective of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, is sure to upset more than a few. That is, however, what we witness as this documentary unfolds, beginning in the summer of 2019 and ending in October of 2023. Filming didn't necessarily end because of the attack in Israel, led by a group of Hamas fighters from Gaza, on October 7 of that year, but there is a terrible convergence of what we know will happen and the film's final images.

Violence seems inevitable. It plays out within the documentary on several occasions, as Israeli soldiers and settlers arrive and stay in this village, and it played out in the horrors of that attack. Moves have been made, of course, to stop Israeli military attacks on Gaza in the aftermath of October 7, but there is no guarantee that either side will stick to the terms of any current ceasefire or any one in the future. Caught up in middle of it all are people who just want to live their lives and have a home, and the tragedy of it all is that's the central motive of both sides of the conflict.

Yes, the directorial team—made up of subjects Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, as well as Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor—only focuses on one side of the conflict, but in terms of trying to live and maintain a home, this is the side that has those basic needs threatened within the context of this story. They are people from a village in Masafer Yatta, located in the West Bank and Adra's home since he was born. For more than two decades, the people of this village, which its locals proudly announce could be found on maps made during the 19th century, have lived with uncertainty.

The land had been claimed by the Israeli government to be used as a testing ground for military tanks. In response, the people from the villages in the region—including Adra's father, a long-time activist who now runs a local gas station—took their case to an Israeli court. It sat there to be argued, debated, deliberated, and seemingly forgotten. The lettering on a sign installed all those years before, warning of live fire from tanks that never came, has faded. Now, the court has ruled in favor of the Israeli military's plan.

With little warning, soldiers arrive in Masafer Yatta, tell the inhabitants to leave, and begin demolishing buildings. Adra and the filmmaking team there with cameras, and over the course of the next three years or so, they will keep returning to see armed military personnel and contractors destroy more and more buildings, to watch as the villagers shelter in caves and attempt to rebuild what has been demolished, and to witness the whole process repeat itself over and over and over again.

Those scenes are shot in the style of guerilla filmmaking, as Adra and others get right into the middle of the demolition—or, at least, as close as the soldiers will allow. Adra has lived with such interruptions into his life before this, with one of his earliest memories being of watching his father arrested by Israeli forces, so it's understandable how he can remain calm and collected while running toward soldiers, construction equipment, and falling edifices. After a couple years of the same process unfolding in front of him, though, it's just as understandable how that attitude shifts as the film progresses.

He knows he needs to stay as level-headed as possible, because his role here is mainly as a journalist—capturing the demolitions on video, asking soldiers and contractors what they're doing and why they're doing it, interviewing villagers in the constant aftermaths of destruction, trying to get to the word of what's happening out to the world as best he can. For that last part, he also relies on Abraham, an Israeli citizen, based in Jerusalem, who grew up in a region south of Masafer Yatta.

He has far more access than Adras—not only to local media, but also, as we learn from Adras when he describes the unequally divided rules and laws of the region, to almost everything else. The two are colleagues and friends, discussing their histories, their goals for this project, and their plans for the future in between the scenes of demolition in the village.

Those moments are enlightening in a different way. There's a sense of solidarity between the two men at the start, and indeed, even those in the village seem happy to see an Israeli citizen next to one of their one, seeing the same thing and recording it with the hope that others, mainly those in countries with political ties to Israel, will do something about it.

As the destruction continues and the complete displacement of those in the area starts to look like an inevitability, tensions arise, because Abraham knows he can do no more and Andras, as well as those who welcomed him a year or so ago, knows that his friend can never fully comprehend what's happening and how he feels about it.

Can anyone who hasn't experienced something like this truly understand it? No Other Land forces us to try, by way of harrowing footage of devastation and violence. This may be only one piece of a much larger and always on-going conflict, but it is a vital one to witness.

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