The Palestinian and Israeli directors of No Other Land, the documentary set in the occupied West Bank, criticized America’s foreign policy in the region as they accepted the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature tonight.
The quartet of Basel Adra and Hamdan Billal, who are Palestinian, and Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, both Israelis, took the stage, with Adra and Abraham speaking on behalf of the filmmaking collective.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger. We see each other — the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people which must end; the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7th, which must be freed,” said Abraham. Then he referenced the different conditions in which he as an Israeli citizen lives, versus Adra, who is subject to Israeli military rule.
“When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal,” he said. “We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law, and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life, and he cannot control. There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say, as I’m here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basil’s people are truly free and safe. There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way.”
Adra spoke first, thanking the Academy and then sharing a personal note.
“About two months ago, I became a father,” he said, “and my hope to my daughter [is] that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now — always fearing settlers’ violence, home demolitions and forceful displacements that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation. No Other Land reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist, as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
The comments by Adra and Abraham were interrupted by applause several times. The film’s win is notable in that it came despite No Other Land lacking U.S. distribution. All of the other contenders in the category – Black Box Diaries from MTV Documentary Films; Porcelain War from Picturehouse; Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, released by Kino Lorber, and Sugarcane, from National Geographic Documentary Films – all enjoyed U.S. distribution.
In an interview with Deadline in mid-February, Abraham addressed the lack of U.S. distribution for the documentary. “I believe it’s clear that it’s for political reasons. I hope that it will change,” he said. “We basically decided not to wait on the theatrical release because the demand in the United States is now so high for the film, and we are now releasing it in almost 100 theaters independently. And we’re seeing everything is sold out. People are coming to watch it, which is really amazing… There are still conversations happening and we are still holding onto this hope that a big distributor will have the minimal amount of courage to take on [the] film.”
No Other Land offers a ground level view of life for Palestinian villagers in the rural Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank, who face the constant threat of expulsion from the Israel Defense Forces and frequent attacks by Israeli settlers. It also foregrounds the unlikely friendship between Adra, a Palestinian, and Yuval, an Israeli, without sentimentalizing the relationship. It won the top prize for documentary at the Berlin Film Festival last year, where it premiered (No Other Land was the only film in the category not to premiere at Sundance).
Adra told us in mid-February that the Israeli military was continuing to destroy Palestinian dwellings in his area of the West Bank. “This week there was a big demolition in three of the villages of Masafer Yatta and around 11 homes were destroyed,” he said. “In one village only, they smashed seven homes and three ancient caves. Around 74 residents lost their homes.”
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