“No Other Land,” a documentary about the resistance of Palestinian activists against forced displacement and settler expansion in the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta, won the Millennium Docs Against Gravity grand prize in the main competition. The jury, comprised of the writer of this article Variety critic Murtada Elfadl, Anna Hints, director of “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” and Lauren Greenfield, director of “The Queen of Versailles,” cited its “power in crystallizing grave injustice into a story of friendship and how hope can thrive only when everyone has freedom.”
The filmmakers – the Palestinian and Israeli collective of Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor – could not attend the closing ceremony because of the political situation and the award was accepted on their behalf by the ambassador of the Palestinian Authority in Poland. The jury awarded two special mentions, citing the strength of the 12 films in competition. The first to “Sugarcane,...
The filmmakers – the Palestinian and Israeli collective of Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor – could not attend the closing ceremony because of the political situation and the award was accepted on their behalf by the ambassador of the Palestinian Authority in Poland. The jury awarded two special mentions, citing the strength of the 12 films in competition. The first to “Sugarcane,...
- 5/23/2024
- by Murtada Elfadl
- Variety Film + TV
Austrian documentary sales outfit Autlook has racked up sales on No Other Land, the Palestinian-Israeli documentary that won the documentary award and Panorama audience award at this year’s Berlinale.
Deals for theatrical distribution have been closed with Dogwoof (UK/Ireland), Filmin (Spain/Portugal), L’Atelier Distribution (France), Cherry Pickers (Benelux), Hi Gloss Entertainment, Transformer (Japan), Restart Label (ex-Yugoslavian countries). The releases are scheduled from late autumn 2024.
Autlook is also reporting strong international interest, and is in negotiations with partners in Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Scandinavia. Cinetic Media is handling North American sales for the film.
Directed by the Palestinian-Israeli team of Basel Adra,...
Deals for theatrical distribution have been closed with Dogwoof (UK/Ireland), Filmin (Spain/Portugal), L’Atelier Distribution (France), Cherry Pickers (Benelux), Hi Gloss Entertainment, Transformer (Japan), Restart Label (ex-Yugoslavian countries). The releases are scheduled from late autumn 2024.
Autlook is also reporting strong international interest, and is in negotiations with partners in Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Scandinavia. Cinetic Media is handling North American sales for the film.
Directed by the Palestinian-Israeli team of Basel Adra,...
- 5/15/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Sheffield DocFest 2024 will shine the spotlight on a collective of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, the Ukraine War Archive project, and more, as organizers on Friday unveiled that the theme for the 31st edition of the English festival will be “Reflections on Realities.”
The event, taking place June 12-17, will offer a special program of films and conversations under the title “Days of Reflection” on the themes of co-resistance, freedom of the press, ancestral lands, and archiving the present, which will feature premieres of No Other Land, State of Silence, Yintah, and Witnesses: Captivity That Kills.
“Sheffield DocFest firmly believes in the transformative power of documentaries to spark curiosity, engage audiences, and foster meaningful discussions,” organizers said. “Recognizing the interconnected challenges of rising polarization, freedom of the press, attacks on independent journalism, and the many violent conflicts around the world, we have thought deeply about our position and responsibility as...
The event, taking place June 12-17, will offer a special program of films and conversations under the title “Days of Reflection” on the themes of co-resistance, freedom of the press, ancestral lands, and archiving the present, which will feature premieres of No Other Land, State of Silence, Yintah, and Witnesses: Captivity That Kills.
“Sheffield DocFest firmly believes in the transformative power of documentaries to spark curiosity, engage audiences, and foster meaningful discussions,” organizers said. “Recognizing the interconnected challenges of rising polarization, freedom of the press, attacks on independent journalism, and the many violent conflicts around the world, we have thought deeply about our position and responsibility as...
- 5/3/2024
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Flats, a film about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, won the top award at Cph:dox in Copenhagen at a Friday night, earning a €10,000 prize.
The documentary directed by Alessadra Celisia takes place in “New Lodge in the center of Belfast, a neighborhood still haunted by the nearly 30-year conflict between Catholics and Protestants which officially ended in 1998.”
In their citation, the jury called the film witty, multi-layered, profound and provocative. They wrote, “Our main award recognizes not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realize when the story outgrows its framework, and the confidence to follow where it, and its fantastically vivid characters lead. We live in a world of divisions, borders and locked gates. Coming like a conversation shouted through one of those locked gates, our winning film is a collective portrait of several proud, funny, resourceful individuals, who would be willing to...
The documentary directed by Alessadra Celisia takes place in “New Lodge in the center of Belfast, a neighborhood still haunted by the nearly 30-year conflict between Catholics and Protestants which officially ended in 1998.”
In their citation, the jury called the film witty, multi-layered, profound and provocative. They wrote, “Our main award recognizes not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realize when the story outgrows its framework, and the confidence to follow where it, and its fantastically vivid characters lead. We live in a world of divisions, borders and locked gates. Coming like a conversation shouted through one of those locked gates, our winning film is a collective portrait of several proud, funny, resourceful individuals, who would be willing to...
- 3/23/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDahomey.Mati Diop’s Dahomey (2024), a documentary about the repatriation of artifacts plundered by French colonists to the present-day Republic of Benin, won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. It is only the second film from the African continent to take the festival’s top prize.The Berlinale has filed criminal charges against activists who hacked the festival’s Instagram account on Sunday to post calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which the festival deemed “anti-Semitic.”The festival has also released a statement disavowing the acceptance speeches of award winners who used their platform to speak out against the occupation and war. Such speeches included those by Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau, whose Direct Action won Best Film in the Encounters section, and by Yuval Abraham,...
- 2/29/2024
- MUBI
“No Other Land” co-director Yuval Abraham announced he is receiving death threats after calling for a ceasefire in Gaza onstage during the 2024 Berlinale closing ceremony.
Abraham, who co-directed documentary “No Other Land” alongside Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor, pointed to the different experiences between himself and Adra due to their ethnicities. While Abraham is Israeli, Adra is Palestinian and living under military occupation in the West Bank; according to Abraham, despite living only a half-hour from one another, their political rights vastly vary.
“We are standing in front of you. Now, we are the same age. I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. And in two days, we go back to a land where we are not equal,” Abraham said onstage at Berlinale while accepting the Best Documentary Award alongside Adra. “I am under civilian law; Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another but I have voting rights.
Abraham, who co-directed documentary “No Other Land” alongside Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor, pointed to the different experiences between himself and Adra due to their ethnicities. While Abraham is Israeli, Adra is Palestinian and living under military occupation in the West Bank; according to Abraham, despite living only a half-hour from one another, their political rights vastly vary.
“We are standing in front of you. Now, we are the same age. I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. And in two days, we go back to a land where we are not equal,” Abraham said onstage at Berlinale while accepting the Best Documentary Award alongside Adra. “I am under civilian law; Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another but I have voting rights.
- 2/26/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Winners have been announced at the 74th Berlin Film Festival, with Dahomey by French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop scooping the coveted Golden Bear for best film. Scroll down for the full list of winners, which were revealed Saturday evening at the Berlinale Palast.
The doc borrows its name from the former West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin. It was founded in the 17th century by King Houegbadja. Under his reign and that of his descendants — a three-century dynasty — the kingdom was a considerable regional power, with a highly structured local economy, a centralized administration, a system of taxes, and a powerful army, including the famous Amazon women (Agodjié).
Diop’s doc opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, these artifacts were...
The doc borrows its name from the former West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin. It was founded in the 17th century by King Houegbadja. Under his reign and that of his descendants — a three-century dynasty — the kingdom was a considerable regional power, with a highly structured local economy, a centralized administration, a system of taxes, and a powerful army, including the famous Amazon women (Agodjié).
Diop’s doc opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, these artifacts were...
- 2/24/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
After two weeks of new cinema, the Berlin Film Festival comes to a close this Sunday, February 25, with its annual awards ceremony. This year’s event marks one of change, as festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian, at his post since 2018, steps down to make way for Tricia Tuttle, who will take over for next year’s outing.
This year’s Berlinale has already stirred plenty of buzz for films like Alonso Ruizpalacios’s “La Cocina,” a drama set in a New York City kitchen and starring Rooney Mara, and Tim Mielants’ opener “Small Things Like These,” starring likely Oscar winner Cillian Murphy. Both films are eligible for awards, along with “Timbuktu” director Abderrahmane Sissako’s “Black Tea,” “Goodnight Mommy” filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Devil’s Bath,” “The Guilty” director Gustav Möller’s “Sons,” Olivier Assayas’ “Suspended Time,” plus Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance hit “A Different Man,” and many more.
This year’s Berlinale has already stirred plenty of buzz for films like Alonso Ruizpalacios’s “La Cocina,” a drama set in a New York City kitchen and starring Rooney Mara, and Tim Mielants’ opener “Small Things Like These,” starring likely Oscar winner Cillian Murphy. Both films are eligible for awards, along with “Timbuktu” director Abderrahmane Sissako’s “Black Tea,” “Goodnight Mommy” filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Devil’s Bath,” “The Guilty” director Gustav Möller’s “Sons,” Olivier Assayas’ “Suspended Time,” plus Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance hit “A Different Man,” and many more.
- 2/24/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the winners of this year’s Panorama Audience Awards, voted on by ordinary viewers at the world’s largest public film festival.
Memories of a Burning Body, the second feature film from Costa Rican director Antonella Sudasassi Furniss, won the top prize for best fiction film, while No Other Land by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor took the Panorama Audience Award for best documentary.
Memories of a Burning Body follows a trio of seventy-something women as they discuss their sexuality and their bodies, confronting the taboos and constrictions of living in a sexist and repressive society. Produced by Substance Films in co-production with Playlab Films, Memories of a Burning Body is being worldwide by Bendita Film Sales.
No Other Land, directed by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, traces the Israeli government’s attempts to expel Palestinians in Masafer Yatta,...
Memories of a Burning Body, the second feature film from Costa Rican director Antonella Sudasassi Furniss, won the top prize for best fiction film, while No Other Land by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor took the Panorama Audience Award for best documentary.
Memories of a Burning Body follows a trio of seventy-something women as they discuss their sexuality and their bodies, confronting the taboos and constrictions of living in a sexist and repressive society. Produced by Substance Films in co-production with Playlab Films, Memories of a Burning Body is being worldwide by Bendita Film Sales.
No Other Land, directed by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, traces the Israeli government’s attempts to expel Palestinians in Masafer Yatta,...
- 2/24/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It is any parent’s hope that their children won’t inherit their battles, or at the very least, that they can pass the generational baton with some ground gained. For young Palestinian lawyer and activist Basel Adra, a West Bank native who grew up watching his activist parents fight to protect their land from Israeli occupiers, there has been no such progress: Time has stood dispiritingly still as he has aged into his elders’ shoes. Adra is a resident of Masafer Yatta, a network of Palestinian villages in the southern Hebron Hills, recently subject to an aggressive campaign of demolition and forced transfer by the Israeli army. As his community is literally bulldozed before his eyes, Adra has little scope to do anything but keep his camera on: “I have nothing else, only my phone,” he despairs. That, thankfully, is not nothing. In the shattering documentary “No Other Land,...
- 2/23/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
‘No Other Land’ Review: A Sobering Doc Chronicles Violent Evictions of Palestinians in the West Bank
One of the many devastating moments in No Other Land, a jolting documentary created by a collective of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, is a scene of bulldozers demolishing the only school in Masafer Yatta, a rural village in the occupied West Bank.
Right before the machines knock the walls down, a group of school children, locked inside the building by the Israeli military, escape through open windows. The institution — a modest one-story building with alabaster walls — was founded when Basel Adra, one of the film’s primary subjects, was a young boy. His mother and father helped lead the effort, which symbolized community resistance against state violence.
The people of Masafer Yatta built this school together despite multiple attempts to stop them. Earlier in the film, Adra recounts how his mother devised a plan to circumvent the Israeli Defense Forces’ antagonism. She instructed women and children to work at the construction site during the day,...
Right before the machines knock the walls down, a group of school children, locked inside the building by the Israeli military, escape through open windows. The institution — a modest one-story building with alabaster walls — was founded when Basel Adra, one of the film’s primary subjects, was a young boy. His mother and father helped lead the effort, which symbolized community resistance against state violence.
The people of Masafer Yatta built this school together despite multiple attempts to stop them. Earlier in the film, Adra recounts how his mother devised a plan to circumvent the Israeli Defense Forces’ antagonism. She instructed women and children to work at the construction site during the day,...
- 2/20/2024
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Some years ago, an uncle of mine traveled to Palestine with a group of volunteers. It was a time of fewer videophones, certainly in the region, and the organization involved had requested that they visit the West Bank and simply document what they saw. After a few days, my uncle circulated an email in which he recounted the story of a mechanic who, having refused to leave his home and business, had his tools arbitrarily confiscated by the Israeli army. The tools, the fruits of years of labour and, given their value, effectively irreplaceable, should have provided for him and his family for years to come––an entire livelihood disappeared with the flick of a pen.
Something that’s occasionally forgotten amongst the carnage and statistic of recent events is how relentless the decades of conflict have been on regular Palestinian lives: the daily humiliations enacted on anyone forced to...
Something that’s occasionally forgotten amongst the carnage and statistic of recent events is how relentless the decades of conflict have been on regular Palestinian lives: the daily humiliations enacted on anyone forced to...
- 2/17/2024
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
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.
No Other Land
In another scene,...
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.
No Other Land
In another scene,...
- 2/17/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The arid area of the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta, which in the 1990s was designated as a live-fire training zone where the Israeli military exercises full control, is home to Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist who has been fighting the mass expulsion of his community by the Israeli authorities since childhood. “No Other Land,” which screens in Berlin’s Panorama section, documents the gradual demolition of houses and entire villages by the military in the region using bulldozers. The documentary was made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists: Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Adra. It screens Feb. 17.
Variety spoke to Adra and Abraham about the challenges of chronicling the escalating expulsions and their hopes that raising awareness will help end the occupation.
How did you start collaborating on this doc?
Basel Adra: I personally grew up seeing Israeli and international activists here...
Variety spoke to Adra and Abraham about the challenges of chronicling the escalating expulsions and their hopes that raising awareness will help end the occupation.
How did you start collaborating on this doc?
Basel Adra: I personally grew up seeing Israeli and international activists here...
- 2/17/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
A Different Man.The Berlinale have begun to announce the first few titles selected for the 74th edition of their festival, set to take place from February 15 through 21, 2024. This page will be updated as further sections are announced.COMPETITIONAnother End (Piero Messina)Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)La Cocina (Alonso Ruiz Palacios) Dahomey (Mati Diop)A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)The Empire (Bruno Dumont)Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)My Favourite CakeLangue Etrangère (Claire Berger)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)Sterben (Matthias Glasner)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)Sleep With Your Eyes Open. ENCOUNTERSArcadia (Yorgos Zois)Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)Demba (Mamadou Dia)Direct ActionSleep With Your Eyes Open (Nele Wohlatz)The Fable (Raam Reddy...
- 1/23/2024
- MUBI
Berlinale co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek are going out with a bang in their final year, with a lineup unveiled today featuring the latest works by Olivier Assayas, Bruno Dumont, Mati Diop, Hong Sang-soo, Abderrahmane Sissako, Jane Schoenbrun, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Matias Pineiro, Travis Wilkerson, Kazik Radwanski, Annie Baker, and more.
When the co-directors were asked by Screen Daily about their departure, Chatrian said, “It’s quite simple. Mariette and I had a mandate of five years. It is true that at the beginning I said that I was willing to go on because there was a shared will with the [German] Ministry [of Culture] to go on. But then the people who have the responsibility to see the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone. And that was the decision of the Ministry.
When the co-directors were asked by Screen Daily about their departure, Chatrian said, “It’s quite simple. Mariette and I had a mandate of five years. It is true that at the beginning I said that I was willing to go on because there was a shared will with the [German] Ministry [of Culture] to go on. But then the people who have the responsibility to see the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone. And that was the decision of the Ministry.
- 1/22/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Berlin Film Festival is staying true to its political roots.
The 74th Berlinale on Wednesday unveiled its Panorama, Generation and Forum sidebars, and the selection is packed with features and documentaries with a strong political bent, as is to be expected from a fest that prides itself on the social relevance of its official lineup.
Gender roles and gender politics are in focus in several of the Panorama titles, including the section’s opening film Crossing from director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced), in which an unlikely duo travels to Istanbul in search of a young trans woman; the Norwegian feature Sex from Dag Johan Haugerud, about two chimney sweeps living in monogamous, heterosexual marriages whose experiences change their views on sexuality; Bruce Labruce’s The Visitor, a provocative remake of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 classic Teorema; and Anthony Schatteman’s debut feature Young Hearts, a Generation Kplus title,...
The 74th Berlinale on Wednesday unveiled its Panorama, Generation and Forum sidebars, and the selection is packed with features and documentaries with a strong political bent, as is to be expected from a fest that prides itself on the social relevance of its official lineup.
Gender roles and gender politics are in focus in several of the Panorama titles, including the section’s opening film Crossing from director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced), in which an unlikely duo travels to Istanbul in search of a young trans woman; the Norwegian feature Sex from Dag Johan Haugerud, about two chimney sweeps living in monogamous, heterosexual marriages whose experiences change their views on sexuality; Bruce Labruce’s The Visitor, a provocative remake of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 classic Teorema; and Anthony Schatteman’s debut feature Young Hearts, a Generation Kplus title,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Berlinale has completed the lineup for its Panorama, Generation, Forum and Forum expanded sections, with new films from Levan Akin and Andre Techine, plus the debut feature of US playwright Annie Baker.
Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.
Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features
Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...
Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.
Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features
Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...
- 1/17/2024
- by Ben Dalton¬Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
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