No Other Land is a documentary that was created through the unusual and tenuous friendship between a Palestinian and an Israeli. It received the 2025 Oscar Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, lives in Masafer Yatta, a community in the occupied West Bank. Yuval Abraham is an Israeli journalist, born in Beersheba and based in Jerusalem. Over four years, between 2019 and 2023, the two men collected footage. They recorded conversations about the slow, steady demolition of homes and farms, as well as the destruction of a community.
The two had no experience as they embarked on this project. Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal Al-Huraini joined the team. As the work developed, it came to include personal phone videos and film capturing the intrusion of Israeli bulldozers flattening homes and schools with little or no time to gather personal belongings.
Despite the harsh images, No Other Land is a quiet film. Conversations make up a substantial portion of the film. This English-speaking viewer was dependent on the subtitles. The footage captures the ordinary life of families in Masafer Yatta. Visits between Adra and Abraham and others focus not only on the situation in the West Bank but also on the contrasts between life for a Palestinian and an Israeli. Abraham can cross freely through checkpoints, whereas it is very difficult and often impossible for Adra to make the same trip.
The film has received releases at independent theatres and nonprofit showings. (Prime Video, Apple TV+)
About the Author
Jenny deGroot is a retired educator, farm-living art lover, and longtime contributor to The Banner's news and Mixed Media sections. She lives near Fort Langley, B.C., and attends Willoughby Christian Reformed Church in Langley, B.C.