This Academy Award nominated film was created by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists. The used cell phones to take raw video to help protect and save their communities from being leveled to the ground. They wanted to help the residents continue living the simple lives they have on their land for generations.
Since the 1980’s, Israel designated their land as Firing Zone 918 for Israeli military training. The mission of the Israeli army was to clear the land by removing the Palestinians and Israeli settlers living there. But they did it without any respect or consideration for the families who built their own communities.
Basel Adra, is a young Palestinian Activist from Masafer Yatta in the West Bank. They continually have to confront the Israeli Army’s control of the area. Israeli soldiers, tanks and bulldozers come with one purpose. They force evictions by bulldozing family homes, schools, hospitals, and more, with absolutely no warning. The soldiers even pour cement down wells to cut off the water supply. It’s been called the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham met Basel and after seeing what he was doing, joined forces along with Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor trying to stop the madness. For 5 years they fought against the destructive eviction by shooting video of the soldiers’ attitudes and destruction. You see the soldiers go after these young activists to keep them from taking video as they’re running for their lives. They keep shooting video showing the stony ground moving beneath them. You feel as though you’re running scared with them.
Yuval is Israeli and was headed for a career in Israeli intelligence. Unlike Basel, he was free to go wherever he wanted, but joined the activists, even learning Arabic. Palestinian Basel has no rights living under this Israeli military occupation, even though he studied at a University and learned to speak Hebrew. He left college to help his father who had been arrested several times for protesting while trying to keep the family business going.
Basel became a guerrilla journalist using his camera to document the Israeli soldiers summarily using heavy equipment to destroy. It looked like the soldiers were targeting random areas. You see the videos that these young activists, took of bulldozers ripping their homes and buildings apart while the residents cry and scream, trying to salvage whatever they can. Many of the families are forced to gather their belongings and live in caves in the same area.
Those who object are threatened with guns. One grown son, Harun Abu Aram, was shot by an Israeli soldier while fighting for his generator while his mother fights for his life. He was paralyzed from the neck down and you see how his mother does what she can to take care of him. This film is dedicated to his memory.
It is a hard watch, but so compelling to see the dedication of these four young activists. Credit goes to Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor for shooting, writing, directing, and editing this powerful documentary, putting their lives on the line for the people of Masafer Yatta struggling to live on No Other Land.
Cinetic Media 1 hour 32 minutes Not Rated
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