‘No Other Land’ wins Oscar for best documentary feature film

“No Other Land” has won the best documentary feature film Oscar.

The project tells the story of the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta community through the lens of a Palestinian activist, Basel Adra, and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, among others.

“‘No Other Land’ reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades, and still resist,” Adra said as the filmmakers accepted the Oscar.

“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together, our voices are stronger,” Abraham said, as the crowd applauded. “We see each other. The atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people must end. The Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of Oct. 7, which must be freed.”

Adra reflected on how becoming a father has compacted him.

“About two months ago I became a father, and my hope to my daughter is that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now,” Adra said.

Tens of thousands of people, including scores of noncombatant women and children in Gaza, were killed in the first year of fighting between Hamas and Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Phase 1 of Israel’s ceasefire deal with Hamas — during which many Israeli hostages were released from Gaza — has expired. Negotiations regarding phase 2 are still ongoing. A total of 59 hostages captured on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza; of those, 24 are presumed to be alive.

“No Other Land” explores the expulsion of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta from their homeland, and includes daunting images of Israel’s demolition and destruction in the region that go along with the Palestinians’ removal.

Masafer Yatta is a small community in the south of the West Bank that has grown to become a focus of Palestinian eviction and displacement at the hands of the Israeli authorities.

Alongside the harrowing images of destruction, the film tells another story of an unlikely friendship between the two filmmakers born on either side of the conflict.

“Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free,” read a synopsis for the film.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since its victory in the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israel’s demolition efforts in the West Bank, on what Israel considers to be illegal structures, have largely been in an effort to clear the way for Israeli settlers to move into the region for reasons including religious beliefs and improved quality of life.

“This film, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance,” the synopsis continued.

The filmmakers behind the powerful project are Adra, Rachel Szor an Israeli cinematographer and director, Hamdan Balla a Palestinian filmmaker, and Abraham.

The film was shot over several years between 2019 and 2023.

In winning the award, “No Other Land” beat out fellow nominees “Black Box Diaries,” “Porcelain War,” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” and “Sugarcane” for the top prize.

In an interview with the New York Times, Abraham discussed the risks involved with making the documentary.

“We worked five years on this and Basel risked his life — I saw him almost get shot two times or three times,” Abraham told the newspaper. “It’s just a minimal amount of courage to give it the stage that we believe it deserves, that the people of Masafer Yatta deserve. But we still hope that it’ll change.”

Previously, the documentary won the Berlinale Documentary Award.