No Other Land wins the Oscar for Best Documentary

During his Oscar acceptance speech, Adra said his film “reflects the harsh reality we have been enduring for decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”

The film follows Adra, a young Palestinian activist in Masafer Yatta, a centuries-old network of Bedouin villages in the West Bank. His community is the target of an aggressive Israeli eviction campaign, supposedly to make way for a military base. During the day, bulldozers flatten villages; at night, desperate residents rebuild their homes.

Working with Jewish-Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and two co-directors, Adra formed a film collective. From the summer of 2019, they turned their cameras on the soldiers. The jerky hand-held images emphasize how precarious the situation is. Everyday scenes show a friendship blossoming between the two activists. Using old home videos and a voice-over, Adra explains that the oppression afflicting his community has been going on much longer.

Although the documentary was finished in October 2023, the directors end with disturbing images of Masafer Yatta in wartime. It makes this urgent film—awarded the Berlinale Best Documentary Prize and winner of numerous audience awards—both a history lesson and a tragic prologue.

IDFA has long been committed to supporting bold documentary filmmaking, and No Other Land exemplifies the power of cinema to bear witness. This historic Oscar win highlights the film’s urgent subject matter and the ongoing reality faced by the people of Masafer Yatta.

IDFA congratulates the filmmakers and crew!