No Other Land () is a 2024 documentary film directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor, in their directorial debut. A Palestinian-Israeli collective of activists, the four conceived and produced the film in what they describe as an act of resistance on the path to justice in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The film was recorded between 2019 and 2023 and shows the destruction of Masafer Yatta, a Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank, which had been resisting forced displacement after an Israeli "firing zone" was declared on their land.
A co-production between Palestine and Norway, the film was selected for the Panorama section at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 16 February 2024, winning the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
Synopsis
Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist, has been resisting the forced displacement of his people by Israel's military in Masafer Yatta, a region in the occupied West Bank, since he was a child. He records the gradual destruction of his homeland, where Israeli soldiers are tearing down homes and evicting their inhabitants to enforce a court order maintaining that the area's designation as an Israeli military firing zone was legal under Israeli law.בג"ץ 413/13 מוחמד מוסא שחאדה אבו עראם ואחרים נ' שר הבטחון ואחרים (4 במאי 2022) He befriends Yuval Abraham, a Jewish Israeli journalist who helps him in his struggle. They form an unexpected bond, but their friendship is challenged by the huge gap between their living conditions: Adra faces constant oppression and violence, while Abraham enjoys freedom and security.
The film follows Adra and the residents of Masafer Yatta as they confront Israeli forces carrying out demolition orders. During one such confrontation, Masafer Yatta resident Harun Abu Aram is shot by an Israeli soldier and paralyzed from the neck down while trying to prevent them from stealing his electric generator. Due to the destruction of his home, which was illegal under Israeli law, he is forced to live in a cave. Abu Aram eventually dies as a result of his injuries and inability to receive proper care.
Abraham attempts to raise awareness of the situation in Masafer Yatta, with limited results. Adra chides him for wanting results too quickly and tells Abraham to be patient. Adra ponders the limits of raising awareness, rhetorically asking Abraham what will happen after people see the footage they have captured. The film ends by showing Adra's cousin Zakaria al-Adra, who was unarmed, being shot by an Israeli settler in the days following the October 7 attacks.
Production
In an interview at the Berlinale, Adra and Abraham spoke with Variety about the film. Adra said of its development, "Yuval and Rachel, who are Israelis, came five years ago to write about things—Yuval is journalist. We met and we became friends but also activists together, working on articles about the area. [...] And then we got the idea of doing this, of creating this movie." About filming, Abraham said:
family and neighbors had a huge archive of videos that were filmed over the course of 20 years. And then we as activists, we were there on the ground together, working together for almost five years, and we filmed a lot. We had Rachel, the cinematographer and co-director of the film, who was shooting us. So there was an abundance of footage. The military entered home twice and confiscated computers and cameras. So we were always very, very stressed. It was complicated logistically and quite stressful, but in the end we managed.The documentary was filmed over four years between 2019 and 2023, wrapping in October 2023.
Release Film festivals No Other Land had its world premiere on 16 February 2024, as part of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, in Panorama. It had its international premiere in the "Urgent Matters" section and the "Conflicted" theme at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival on 15 March 2024. It featured in the "Popular Front(s)" in the 46th Cinéma du Réel Festival in March 2024 in Paris. The film was presented in the International Documentaries section of the 71st Sydney Film Festival on 13 June 2024. It screened in the "Horizons" section at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on 28 June 2024.
It was selected in TIFF Docs at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, where it screened on 12 September 2024. It screened in "Showcase" at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival on 28 September 2024. It was selected in Documentary Showcase at the 29th Busan International Film Festival and screened on 3 October 2024. It was on the Main Slate of the 2024 New York Film Festival and screened at Lincoln Center in October 2024. It screened at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2024. The film was selected for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024 under the World Cinema section, where it was to have its South Asia premiere, but its screenings were canceled as the festival could not obtain "required permissions" in time. The film was also selected in the Standpoint section of the 35th Singapore International Film Festival and screened there on 4 December 2024. Theatrical release No Other Land was picked up for distribution in 24 countries, but could not find a U.S. distributor, a situation that has been called soft censorship. It had a one-week Oscar-qualifying theatrical run at Film at Lincoln Center in New York City starting on 1 November 2024. It had a limited theatrical release on 31 January 2025 at Film Forum in New York City and on 7 February at Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles, with bookings facilitated by Cinetic Media via Michael Tuckman Media. The film was released in UK cinemas, distributed by Dogwoof, in November 2024, and in Australian cinemas on 2 December 2024. Streaming and digital release The film was released on the subscription service DocPlay in Australia on 24 February 2025. In March 2025 it was streamed on Channel 4's service All4 and screened on its free-to-air channel. the film is available on DocPlay and the Australian free public broadcaster streaming platform SBS on Demand. In April 2025, the film was made available for digital rental in North America for three weeks, with proceeds benefiting Masafer Yatta. The film was made available on streaming platforms in the US on 20 October 2025. The filmmakers said they had previously reached a streaming agreement with Mubi but declined the deal due to Sequoia Capital's investment in Mubi. The film is available to rent on Apple TV, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and other services via the fundraising platform, with funds going directly to the people of Masafer Yatta.
Reception Critical response Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 93 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Olivia Popp, reviewing the film at Berlinale for Cineuropa, wrote: "No Other Land is at its best when it achieves cinematographic mobility, the camera acting as an extension of this activist interrogation of violent Israeli occupation and not as a detached observer." Lovia Gyarkye, reviewing the film for The Hollywood Reporter, called it "a devastating portrait", writing, "The film is not a document of solutions, but it does position itself as a step in the movement toward a future where Palestinians are just as free as Israelis." Jonathan Romney, reviewing the film at Berlinale in ScreenDaily, called the film "a documentary that is particularly urgent and eye-opening in the context of the current Israeli–Palestinian conflict."
In Variety, Guy Lodge wrote, "Given the conditions of its production, No Other Land would be vital even in a more ragged form. But the filmmaking here is tight and considered." David Ehrlich of IndieWire graded the film A and wrote, "The footage is out there, and it's rarely been assembled into a more concise, powerful, and damning array than it is here. Now it only has to be seen." For RogerEbert.com, Robert Daniels wrote, "In the hands of these filmmakers the camera becomes a weapon for truth and resistance, and a tool for conservation—recording some proof that their village existed".
Accolades The film was ranked third among the top 25 European works of 2024 by the journalists at Cineuropa. It was included on Screen International's list of top documentaries of 2024 and on Deadline Hollywood's top 10 documentaries of 2024. In June 2025, IndieWire placed the film 13th on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far, midway of the decade)".