No Other Land

There is no other land and there should be no need for one.

A tragic story of greed and inhumanity that has been falling on deaf years for decades because one country is powerful and has powerful friends and allies and the other one has nothing to offer, therefore nobody cares what happens to it outside of a few minutes or days of noteworthy news and public outcry, which also tends to die down quickly as people go about their daily business and forget about the sorrows of people in a faraway land whom they'll never meet. That too is a story as old as time and history never seems to teach us much. When the weak become powerful they forget what it was like and they become oppressors without a second thought.

What a tame word "settler" is. It doesn't say anything, when in fact it means occupier.

Incredibly hard to watch, but vital. The viewpoint we in North America are not allowed to see. Documentation of the devastation wrought by modern day colonialism, which needs to remembered, and recognized. History is being made and it the film makers are telling the side of the oppressed, who have been ignored for too long! Please do what you can to see this film. When the powers that be don't want you to see something, you know it is something that needs attention. Beautifully shot, devastating footage of atrocious settler actions, tearing down schools, children crying, violence being committed against villagers, it is incredible how many atrocious acts the filmmakers were able to record.

Incredibly hard to watch, but vital. The viewpoint we in North America are not allowed to see. Documentation of the devastation wrought by modern day colonialism, which needs to remembered, and recognized. History is being made and it the film makers are telling the side of the oppressed, who have been ignored for too long. This film is a complete embodiment of what the people need to see and hear. The truth in this movie is unwavering and its depicted with live footage throughout the entire documentary, leaving no other conclusions to be made but the one that is in front of your eyes. Captivating for any fan of real life documentaries, this is as real as it gets.

I don't know the route to a happy Middle East any more than the next person; that it will never be achieved if Israel continues on its current path seems certain. Defenders of the Israeli state dislike the use of the term "settler-colonialism" to describe what has been happening, but it's hard to find an alternative for the bleak reality shown in this film, a collaboration between a Palestinian facing eviction from the family land in the West Bank and a sympathetic Israeli. That collaboration is perhaps the only heartening thing in an otherwise deeply depressing, but important, film. Tellingly, it was all shot before autumn 2023; it's hard to believe that anything has got better since then.

I usually steer clear of political discussions - not because I lack opinions, quite the opposite - but because even those who claim to be open-minded and well-educated often struggle to engage in meaningful conversations without turning them into hostile debates.

Too often, discussions dissolve into battles of empty rhetoric rather than genuine exchanges of ideas.

That said, "No Other Land" is not an easy documentary to review. Created by a group of Palestinian and Israeli activist filmmakers, it captures the destruction of Masafer Yatta, a cluster of villages in the southern West Bank.

Once home to generations, this land has been transformed into an Israeli military training ground, rendering its residents' presence - and even the act of rebuilding their demolished homes - illegal.

Filmmakers Basel Adra, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, Palestinian director and farmer Hamdan Ballal, and Israeli cinematographer Rachel Szor present the harsh reality with raw honesty.

There's no embellishment, no forced emotional manipulation - just the infuriating truth. The film doesn't tell us anything new about war crimes, occupation, or the fight for Palestinian sovereignty. Instead, it shows us what those words truly mean for the people living them every day.

Why is this documentary so important? Oscar or no Oscar, "No Other Land" is perhaps the most authentic depiction of life under occupation - a stark contrast to the shocking, sensationalized videos that flood social media.

Not that those clips aren't real, but let's be honest - most of us have no idea what life on the ground actually looks like. We aren't there, on the frontlines, facing the devastation firsthand.

This film strips away the spectacle of war, the manufactured narratives, and the distant outrage. Instead, it presents the quiet resilience of a people fighting to preserve what little remains of their homes, culture, and dignity.

No dramatization, no spectacle - just silence, destruction, and the unbearable weight of injustice.

Perhaps it's easier to look away, to stay in a comfort zone of selective outrage while ignoring the real crimes happening in plain sight.

But "No Other Land" makes looking away impossible.

If this documentary is still playing at a theater near you, don't hesitate - go see it.

Be ready to witness a raw, unfiltered reality that rarely makes it to mainstream screens. Let it challenge you, make you uncomfortable, and most importantly, make you think about the truth this collective is revealing.