As directors Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor accepted the Best Documentary Oscar for No Other Land, they used the moment to call for “a political solution” to the war in Gaza.
“We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people,” said Adra, a Palestinian journalist and activist.
He continued, “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter is that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now. No Other Land reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist.”
Abraham, an Israeli journalist, spoke about the film’s collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together, our voices are stronger. We see each other, the destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, the Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7, which must be freed,” he said.
He also pointed to the inequalities between them. “We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control,” he said.
“There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people,” Abraham added.
He also criticized U.S. foreign policy, asking, “Why can’t you see that we are intertwined, that my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe?”
Created by an Israeli-Palestinian collective, No Other Land follows a Palestinian family as the Israeli government displaces them from their home in the West Bank.
The film, made by four Palestinian and Israeli activists, is described as an act of resistance in the pursuit of justice amid the ongoing regional conflict.
A co-production between Palestine and Norway, it was selected for the Panorama section at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it premiered on February 16, 2024. It went on to win the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award.