No Other Land (15)

(Subtitled)

This remarkable Palestinian-Israeli collaborative documentary offers a unique and devastating perspective from the ground regarding what life is like on the West Bank and why things need to change.

For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel’s occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with an Israeli journalist, Yuval Abraham, who wants to join his fight. Neither Basel nor Yuval have answers, but they have hope, and it is that hope which makes No Other Land such a galvanising and imperative piece of documentary filmmaking.

Though undoubtedly grave, the film finds heart and humanity in the relationship that develops between the pair, and in the dignity with which the citizens of Masafer Yatta resist their gradual expulsion. And unlike many social-issue documentaries that come off as glorified news reports, the result is immersive and cinematic, anchored by alliance.

What is most moving is seeing how this everyday reality of eviction and resistance, of building and rebuilding, contrasts with another everyday reality that people want to have, which is to have a normal life. The more of this documentation, the better.