Catch this year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land, as it makes its streaming debut. The film directed by Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor—a collective of Palestinian and Israel journalists and filmmakers—is now available to rent on Gathr. No Other Land was widely acclaimed for its portrait of forcible home evictions in Adra and Ballal’s home region of Masafer Yatta in Palestine. All proceeds go towards the people of Masafer Yatta.
The events in No Other Land precede the tragedies of October 7 and Israeli’s bombardment of Palestine, but they contextualise the ongoing violence people in Palestine face by the Israeli occupation. Adra, a longtime activist chronicling the violence, found an ally in Abraham, an Israeli journalist, who helped to amplify the story. Their partnership illustrates the very different realities for people living in Palestine and Israel, as Abraham can navigate borders freely, while Adra experiences life under constant surveillance. The latter point became painfully evident when Ballal was attacked by a mob of Israeli settlers following the film’s Oscar win and subsequently arrested by the Israeli army.
Although No Other Land was widely acclaimed on the festival circuit, it failed to secure a North American distributor, even once it became the favourite in the Oscar race. The film was self-released and became a word of mouth hit, illustrating the appetite for challenging stories about present events.
Rent No Other Land here. It also screens in select theatres.
You can find all POV’s coverage of No Other Land here, including a review and interview with Adra and Abraham. The film was among POV‘s picks for the best docs of 2024.
