No Other Film As Deserving Of An Oscar

Screen shot from the promotional trailer for “No Other Land” (Source)

Editor's Note: The following is a review of a film that stands at the intersection of journalism and represents an achievement in the face of threats to freedom of expression.

When the credits rolled at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, I could feel a heaviness in the air. The auditorium was chillingly silent after an afternoon screening of “No Other Land.”

A small group of activists in the back of the auditorium briefly pierced the silence with their message about boycott, divestment, and sanctions, or BDS, against the Israeli government. But the typical low hum of chatter that one normally hears after most screenings was absent. Everyone slowly put on their winter coats, picked up their belongings, and slowly exited as they processed the stunning images they had just seen.

Few films in recent memory are as vital as “No Other Land.” The documentary feature from first-time filmmakers Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, and Basel Adra, a Palestinian journalist, is a frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 2024. It is the highest-grossing documentary out of all of the documentaries nominated for an Oscar. It has won over 60 awards from critics associations and film festivals around the world. And yet, most of the attention that it has received in recent months stems from the film not having a distributor in the United States.

Abraham and Adra, along with co-directors Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor, have had to turn to a traveling road show distribution model — booking the film at colleges, universities, arthouses, or private theatres — to reach U.S. audiences. In the meantime, a severe escalation in the West Bank by the Israeli military and settlers has made overcoming film industry censorship so Americans may access this acclaimed documentary even more urgent.

Read the full article at The Dissenter