No Other Land


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 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 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. 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:
Basal's ' 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 Basal's ' 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 production in October 2023.

Release

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" in the 46th Cinéma du Réel Festival that took place from 22 to 31 March 2024 in Paris. The film was presented in the International Documentaries section of the 71st Sydney Film Festival on 13 June 2024. It was also 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 also on the Main Slate of the 2024 New York Film Festival and screened at Lincoln Center 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 the "required permissions" in time. The film was also selected in the Standpoint section of the 35th Singapore International Film Festival and screened on 4 December 2024.
The film could not find a U.S. distributor after being picked up for distribution in 24 countries and winning the Oscar, a situation that has been compared to 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 in New York City on 31 January 2025, at New York's Film Forum, and Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles on 7 February, with bookings facilitated by Cinetic Media via Michael Tuckman Media. In April 2025, the film was made available for digital rental in North America for three weeks, with proceeds benefiting Masafer Yatta. Basel Adra said in a statement, "We decided to independently make our film accessible online in the U.S. because, despite winning the Oscar, our community is still being destroyed and we urgently need help."
The film was made available on streaming platforms on 20 October 2025. The filmmakers said they had previously reached a streaming agreement with Mubi but ultimately declined the deal due to Sequoia Capital's investment in Mubi.

Reception

Critical response

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 ".
AwardDateCategoryRecipientResult
Berlin International Film Festival25 February 2024Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary FilmNo Other LandWon
Berlin International Film Festival25 February 2024Berlinale Documentary Film AwardNo Other LandWon
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival22 March 2024Audience AwardNo Other LandWon
Visions du Réel19 April 2024Audience AwardNo Other LandWon
Millennium Docs Against Gravity16 May 2024Grand Prix Bank Millennium AwardNo Other LandWon
Millennium Docs Against Gravity16 May 2024Audience AwardNo Other LandWon
Vancouver International Film Festival6 October 2024Audience Award – ShowcaseNo Other LandWon
Busan International Film Festival11 October 2024Busan Cinephile AwardNo Other LandWon
Chicago International Film Festival27 October 2024Gold Hugo – Documentary CompetitionNo Other LandNomitated
Asia Pacific Screen Awards30 November 2024Best Documentary FilmYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge RønningWon
Montreal International Documentary Festival1 December 2024People's Choice Award Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge RønningWon
Gotham Awards2 December 2024Best Documentary FeatureYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge RønningWon
New York Film Critics Circle3 December 2024Best Non-Fiction FilmNo Other LandWon
National Board of Review Awards5 December 2024NBR Freedom of Expression AwardNo Other LandWon
International Documentary Association Awards5 December 2024Best Feature DocumentaryYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge RønningWon
International Documentary Association Awards5 December 2024Best DirectorBasel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, and Yuval AbrahamWon
International Documentary Association Awards5 December 2024Courage Under Fire AwardBasel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, and Yuval AbrahamWon
European Film Awards7 December 2024European FilmNo Other Land
European Film Awards7 December 2024European DocumentaryNo Other LandWon
British Independent Film Awards8 December 2024Best International Independent FilmBasel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Fabrien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge RønningNomitated
Boston Society of Film Critics8 December 2024Best Documentary FilmNo Other LandWon
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association8 December 2024Best DocumentaryNo Other LandNomitated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association8 December 2024Best Documentary FilmNo Other LandWon
San Diego Film Critics Society9 December 2024Best Foreign Language FilmNo Other LandNomitated
St. Louis Film Critics Association15 December 2024Best Documentary FeatureNo Other LandWon
Toronto Film Critics Association15 December 2024Special CitationNo Other LandWon
Seattle Film Critics Society16 December 2024Best Documentary FeatureBasel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel SzorWon
Chicago Film Critics Association11 December 2024Best Documentary FilmNo Other LandWon
Film Comment12 December 2024Top 20 Best Films of 2024No Other Land
Film Comment13 December 2024Best Undistributed FilmNo Other LandWon
San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle15 December 2024Best Documentary FeatureNo Other LandNomitated
Florida Film Critics Circle20 December 2024Best Documentary FilmNo Other LandNomitated
Greater Western New York Film Critics Association4 January 2025Best PictureNo Other LandNomitated
Greater Western New York Film Critics Association4 January 2025Best Foreign FilmNo Other LandWon
Greater Western New York Film Critics Association4 January 2025Best DocumentaryYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel SzorWon
National Society of Film Critics4 January 2025Best Non-Fiction FilmNo Other LandWon
National Society of Film Critics4 January 2025Special Citation for a Film Awaiting U.S. DistributionNo Other LandWon
Austin Film Critics Association6 January 2025Best Documentary FilmNo Other LandNomitated
Cinema Eye Honors9 January 2025Outstanding Non-Fiction FeatureYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, Julius Pollux Rothlaender and Bård Harazi FarbuWon
Cinema Eye Honors9 January 2025Outstanding DirectionYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel SzorNomitated
Cinema Eye Honors9 January 2025Outstanding DebutYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel SzorWon
Cinema Eye Honors9 January 2025Outstanding ProductionFabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge RønningNomitated
Cinema Eye Honors9 January 2025The UnforgettablesYuval Abraham and Basel AdraWon
Palm Springs International Film Festival12 January 2025Best DocumentaryNo Other LandWon
Satellite Awards26 January 2025Best Motion Picture – DocumentaryNo Other LandNomitated
Robert Awards1 February 2025Best Non-English Language FilmNo Other LandNomitated
London Film Critics' Circle2 February 2025Documentary of the YearNo Other LandWon
International Cinephile Society9 February 2025Best DocumentaryNo Other Land
International Cinephile Society9 February 2025Best Debut FilmNo Other Land
British Academy Film Awards16 February 2025Best DocumentaryYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Academy Awards2 March 2025Best Documentary Feature FilmYuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel SzorWon