Th news is...a lot right now. Sometimes the easiest, healthiest decision is to just look away. To look inward, to make our circle smaller and focus on what's right in front of us. It's an understandable urge, and it's OK to indulge it now and then.
It's also imperative that we take our heads out of the sand long enough to see the truth of what's going on around us and, if not participate actively in changing it for the better, at least advocate for and stand as allies with those fighting the good fight.
In the world of documentary filmmaking, 2024 (and now films being released in early 2025) marked a fascinating year for non-fiction storytelling. Namely, several powerful (or at least political) films dealing with a variety of hot-button issues were all but ignored by the gatekeepers who decide what screens in theaters or lands on your favorite streaming channel. For example, Union, about an effort to organize employees at an Amazon warehouse, will likely never see a wide release given who and what it criticizes.
Elsewhere in that category is No Other Land, a documentary credited to no fewer than four directors (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor) who also all serve as writers, producers and editors as well. It's an unusual collaboration that makes sense when you learn that the film is a first-person account of the present-day destruction of Gaza and the forceed displacement of an entire people. With an unflinching honesty and a camera willing to keep rolling when, for their own safety, it probably shouldn't, No Other Land captures the reality of what's been going on in that region of the world for years, in ways no traditional news report could ever hope to.
One of the filmmakers is Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta; another is Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist intent on documenting what he's witnessing. The film chronicles their unlikely camaraderie as the come from very different origins but find themselves equally trapped by what is outside of their control. Adra captures pure devastation and senselessness as Israeli troops roll up on communities simply going about their lives, bringing destruction and displacement with them. We watch as buildings are torn down, as children are evacuated from school before the bulldozers hit, as mothers scream for their homes and the only life they know being torn from them. The danger this puts Adra and his fellow filmmakers in is palpable and often difficult to watch.
In its quieter moments, No Other Land offers space for Adra and Abraham to speak to each other with honesty and transparency, sharing their fears and frustrations. Though they inhabit the same space, they live very, very different lives, as one is confined to certain borders and the other can move about freely (car license plates come into play, an eye-opening realization for an outsider like me who never realized the extent of the oppression). No Other Land succeeds for many reasons, but chief among them is the fraught relationship that develops between these two opposites.
Though now enjoying a limited theatrical release (in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre) and easily (and deservedly) one of the year's most acclaimed documentaries, including earning an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, No Other Land is not benefiting from the support of a traditional distributor. Though no one can say for certain, one imagines that's likely because the film so nakedly exposes the atrocities happening in Gaza and beyond and forces the viewer to acknowledge what's going on in the world outside their carefully crafted bubble.
I'm not sure what you or I can do to directly help the people harmed by all that's happening, but at the very least we can be aware of it and speak up about it. And at great risk to themselves, the filmmaking team who have created No Other Land give us the most harrowing, urgent way to do so.
The film is now in theaters.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider supporting Third Coast Review’s arts and culture coverage by making a donation. Choose the amount that works best for you, and know how much we appreciate your support!