NZIFF: No Other Land

Filmed in Palestine between 2019 and 2023, No Other Land is documentary film performing its calling. An urgent and irresistible reminder as to why we choose to understand the world, and others, through cinema.

Produced by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, No Other Land documents a Palestinian village struggling against displacement. The West Bank’s Masafer Yatta residents face mass evictions at hands of Israeli authorities. Yet this is much a story of its own co-directors’ asymmetrical relationship as it is an account of Masafer Yatta. The result is a masterful exploration of 21st century apartheid and colonisation.

At the centre of the story is Masafer Yatta activist and one of the film’s co-directors, Basel Adra. Beside him is Israeli journalist and another co-director, Yuval Abraham. Abraham arrives on the scene to report on what his own government is doing. Despite Abraham becoming invested in the struggles of the village, he enjoys many freedoms not afforded to Adra, who names these inequalities openly. In refusing to manufacture a harmonious scene of Palestinian and Israeli friendship, the film demonstrates a respect for its subjects, and ultimately, audience. This relational honesty illustrates the vast human consequences of Israeli occupation.

Given the lengths that Adra and Abraham go to during years of filming to record and share the truth, this is a film which asks: if people only knew, would things change? No Other Land is both an invitation and a wero, an offering that demands to be seen. — Nadia Abu-Shanab