Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist, and Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, join forces to prevent forced evictions and demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli authorities in the trailer for No Other Land, which is having a world premiere at the Berlinale.
Adra and Abraham are also one half along with Palestinian photographer Hamdan Ballal and Israeli cinematographer Rachel Szor of an Israeli-Palestinian film collective that wrote, directed, produced and edited the feature documentary having its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
“We have to raise our voices, not being silent as if no human beings live here,” Basel says at one point in the trailer as he looks to undue any notion Palestinians don’t exist as a nation or have a collective consciousness.
No Other Land follows Adra as he looks to oppose the threatened expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank Masafer Yatta community.
In another scene, Israeli soldiers raiding Adra’s village chase the film team away as they capture footage of the incursion, leading to greatly distorted footage. “Who do you think you’re filming, you son of a whore?” an Israeli soldier shouts as he attempts to reach the escaping camera team.
Because Adra lives under military occupation and Abraham lives freely and without restrictions, the tension between the two filmmakers surfaces in the trailer. “It would be nice with stability one day. Then you’ll come visit me, not always me visiting you,” Abraham tells his filmmaking colleague at one point.
“Maybe,” Adra responds with a blank face. No Other Land will debut as part of the Berlinale’s Panorama program on Saturday.
