As the Israeli state predictably turns its attention to the West Bank during the “ceasefire” in Gaza, a film about what is happening there is very timely.
This powerful moving film about the ethnic cleansing of the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank by the Israeli state and settlers was made by a four-person joint Palestinian-Israeli team, of which the two members Basel Adra (Palestinian) and Yuval Abraham (Jewish Israeli) are visible on screen, and won an award at the Berlin Film Festival. The German minister of culture was in the audience applauding, but later said, in line with the German “staatsrason” policy of allying with Israel, that they were only applauding the Jewish Israeli guy and not the Palestinian.
You can watch the film via this link
Middle East Eye report
This report on the progress of the film appeared on the Middle East Eye site
A film exposing the brutality of Israel‘s occupation of the West Bank has been nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary. Set in the town of Masafar Yatta, No Other Land is directed by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and Palestinian journalist Basel Adra.
Its shortlisting for the Oscar was announced on Thursday despite the film not having any distribution deal in the US. Much of No Other Land is made up of footage dating back to Adra’s childhood showing his activist father squaring off against Israeli soldiers and settlers in order to stop appropriation of Palestinian land.
The movie previously won the Documentary Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in February last year. Accepting that award, Abraham and Adra sparked outrage for using their winners’ speech to condemn the occupation of Palestine.
“I am free to move where I want in this land, but Basel, like millions of Palestinians, is locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end,” said Abraham.
At the time, the speech sent shockwaves through the German cultural establishment, with politicians issuing condemnations of the pair. Berlin’s official online portal faced backlash for claiming the film about Israel’s takeover in the occupied West Bank contained “antisemitic tendencies”.
In November, Abraham told Middle East Eye that Germany’s obsessive crackdown on pro-Palestinian behaviour was making life increasingly difficult for Jews and Israelis like himself who wanted to see an end to the war on Gaza. Despite the film’s positive critical reception, it has faced difficulties finding distribution companies willing to take it on inside the US.
The struggle to find distribution for the film is being blamed on a censurious atmosphere in the entertainment industry, which seeks to curtail criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Earlier this month, while accepting an award from the New York Film Critics Circle, Brady Corbet, director of fellow nominee The Brutalist, used his acceptance speech to call on the film industry to reverse course. “And the last thing I want to say is that it’s time to distribute No Other Land,” he said.
The 96th Academy Awards will be held in Hollywood on 10 March.
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