After being recognised at the 74th Berlinale last year, one of the timeliest documentaries of 2024 has now earned the industry’s “highest honour,” sparking outrage and garnering acclaim in equal measure. No one who has seen the film can deny that seeing director Basel Adra’s footage of his cousin Zakriha being shot in the stomach by a Zionist settler, rather than merely reading vague accounts of heated confrontations, is part of what lends the film its blood-boiling urgency. The moment certainly holds historical significance for Palestinian cinema, but is it setting a positive precedent or reaffirming systemic prejudices within the film industry?
The day after returning to Masafer Yatta following the ceremony, in which the host seemed more concerned by the aftermath of the LA wildfires than an ongoing genocide, Adra documented physical attacks towards his neighbours and their homes by yet more settlers. The cycles of terror continue. The world moves on. Academy Award winner Mikey Madison waits to look back on an illustrious career as a Hollywood star, and Palestinian activist Basel Adra must choose between abandoning his home or being killed. While accusations of antisemitism and racial double standards are used to justify apartheid and forced expulsion, archival footage and guerrilla-style documentation are some of the only ways for Palestinian artists to share their stories with the world. Whether it is the raiding and censoring of bookshops, burning down of olive trees, or the destruction of schools, their history is being erased. But although the film’s critical success and cultural impact have been somewhat dampened by its lack of US distribution, it does remind us to think more critically about the media we consume. If we can apply No Other Land to the reality from which we benefit living in Edinburgh, then we can learn to scrutinise the institutions we unknowingly support everyday: complacency is complicity, and a golden statuette has no power to change that. As by the pseudo-ceasefire of 19th January, Palestinians are constantly reminded to be cautioned against breathing sighs of relief amidst a relentless struggle for freedom.
In the same way that the film cites Tony Blair’s fleeting visit to Masafer Yatta in 2009, whereupon the IDF cancelled the previously mandated demolition of a local school, as an example of the blatant power imbalance which characterises life in the occupied West Bank, one must also be mindful of the fact that, within the political framework of western bureaucracy, the first Palestinian director to win an Academy Award could only do so with the support of Israeli filmmakers. The film itself includes an interview with one of the filmmakers, Yuval Abraham, who states: “I don’t think we can have security if Palestinians do not have freedom,” which implies that the security of Israel − the military force whose existence hinges on the illegal dispossession of the native Palestinians − is somehow threatened by the very people imprisoned within their own borders. Despite Abraham’s good intentions, his attachment to the film ultimately undermines Adra and Hamdan Ballal’s efforts to strive for self-determination. Even if one searches Adra’s name on Google Images, he frequently appears in pictures alongside Abraham, as though his identity is not worthy or even palatable enough for the world on its own. While Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now (2005) and Omar (2013) had been previously nominated, it is important to remember that that was for Best International Feature rather than Documentary Feature. As such, No Other Land’s win also reinforces the comfortable archetype of the Palestinian, or Arab, artist as both defined and confined by political conflict. They cannot tell their own fictional stories, because they cannot ignore the turmoil and alienation to which they are subject or are burdened by a responsibility to adhere to narratives which are politically topical.
In an interview with Dazed Media, Adra says: “We participated in Close Up because we didn’t have experience making documentaries, and it’s an initiative that supports movies from the Middle East. I don’t think its involvement means that the film is pro-normalisation.” Perhaps it is not up to us to pass judgement. Perhaps Masafer Yatta’s villagers deserve the right to embrace help from anyone who is willing to stand up for their rights; their dignity. Perhaps independently organised screenings of the film, such as those taking place at the Jackson Market in Culver City, Los Angeles, show the impact it has had on audiences. But what is certain is that the question (why should it remain a question?) of the legitimacy of Palestinian identity, heritage, and agency can no longer be up for debate.
“Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham (Berlin Film Festival 2024) 2” by César is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.