On Oct. 13, 2023, less than a week after the Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent genocidal bombing campaign, Zakariya al-Adra was shot point blank in the stomach. He was shot by an Israeli settler from the nearby illegal settlement in the South Hebron Hills region of the West Bank, far from Gaza. Although the shooting was caught on video and made Israeli news, the settler never faced criminal charges.
Footage of the the shooting is included in the final scenes of the documentary No Other Land.
A cluster of small villages that are reliant on farming and shepherding, the entire region of the South Hebron Hills, known as Masafer Yatta in Arabic, is at risk of forcible displacement to make way for an Israeli “Closed Military Zone.”
For many of the Palestinians living in this region, simply continuing their lives is an act of resistance against the encroaching settlements and constant demolitions of Palestinian homes, schools and other infrastructure.
Journalists and activists like Basel al-Adra and Hamdan Al-Huraini, who documented Zakariya’s shooting, seek to share their experiences through film. Partnering with Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, they produced the documentary No Other Land, showing the world the beauty and pain contained in this little region.
Having spent time there volunteering to document and be a protective presence, I can attest that the documentary accurately portrays the infuriating situation in Masafer Yatta and the brave steadfastness of its residents.
As Hamdan writes, “The film was our attempt to give people insight into the realities of our lives in Masafer Yatta: the constant onslaught of Israeli state and settler violence, and the toll it takes on us; everyday moments and interactions with our families; and the complicated relationships we Palestinians navigate with those who come here to support and resist alongside us.”
Shot over four years, No Other Land follows the friendship of two young men. Basel al-Adra is a Palestinian born activist from Masafer Yatta. Yuval Abraham is his Israeli friend and activist counterpart. The film begins with their initial introduction and follows the close relationship that forms between them. Seeking to bring the tensions of this inequitable friendship to the forefront, the documentary does not shy away from discussion of Israeli and Palestinian co-resistance.
In one scene, Basel chides Yuval for expecting justice to come quickly to the region. “It requires patience. Get used to losing,” Basel says in the car just after they filmed Israeli crews demolish another home. Basel reminds him that these conditions have existed for decades and will not be solved with a quick solidarity trip to the region.
Seeing myself and my own visits represented by Yuval, Basel’s words hit me from the big screen. He points out that Yuval has the ability to come and go; to tap in and out of the struggle as he sees fit. For Basel, this is no choice. This is the life he faces day in and day out, with no opportunity to spend a weekend away for reprieve.
Since premiering a little over one year ago, the film has won 62 awards, including the jury and audience awards at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, as well as audience winner of the Amsterdam documentary festival. At its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2024, all the showings sold out. It has also been nominated for an Oscar.
Despite its popularity, the film has yet to find a distributor in North America. On Feb. 2, co-director Basel al-Adra announced they would independently release the film, with screenings coming to 20 North American cities.
The film has been attacked by supporters of Israel. After receiving awards at the Berlin Film Festival, the festival wrote a statement claiming a speech given by Basel and Yuval was antisemitic.
In Israel, Yuval faced intense harassment for his role in the film. When I was in Masafer Yatta over the summer, Hamdan hosted my group for lunch and told us about the steps Yuval had to take to protect himself and his family from angry Israelis.
In a starkly different conversation, which was included in the film, Hamdan noted to Yuval that it could be Yuval’s own Israeli family member who comes to Masafer Yatta to harass the villagers and bulldoze their homes.
Basel and Hamdan have spent the last year battling to get visas to attend their movie’s international premieres, all while simultaneously resisting the massive increases in settler violence since October 2023. With Israel arming and deputizing extremist settlers in the West Bank, the untenable situation shown in the movie has only grown worse.
But moments of joy and life intersperse this violence. Since filming, Basel has gotten married. Nasser has visited the United States, and villagers still gather to chat, drink tea, and smoke hookah. Basel notes that “The movie is succeeding.” But he also notes that as the movie finds acclaim abroad, “the situation is getting worse and worse because of what is going on [in Gaza].”
Though the situation in Masafer Yatta has not improved since the film release, the film has opened eyes to the occupation and resistance occurring in the region. The film has been seen around the world, but local showings are also important. As Hamdan writes, “Witnessing my community watching this, I felt powerful, as though we were really doing something for our people. It validated for us that we are on the right path. We set out to make our people feel that we are still fighting for them, and at least in that, we have succeeded.”
Toronto screenings
Torotonians have a few opportunities to catch the film. On Feb. 7, Hot Docs will be showing it as part of their “For Viola” series. On Feb. 9, the Morris Winchevsky School is hosting a screening being screened at Innis Hall at the University of Toronto. And it is screening at TIFF from Feb. 7 to 13.