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 Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival, taking place in seven cities in Poland from Friday to May 19 and then online from May 21 to July 3, has grown exponentially in the last few years. In fact it is now, as the people behind it proclaim, the largest film festival in Poland.
Artistic director Karol Piekarczyk explains, “There is a culture of watching films and of watching films with subtitles in Poland. There are a lot of arthouse cinemas, in comparison to the U.K. for example. Even in small cities.”
Piekarczyk has worked for the festival for the past seven years and this edition will be his fourth as artistic director. He sees his job as “reminding everyone that our priority is and has always been the audience. However, we are a documentary festival, and whether we like it or not, audiences mainly choose films based on topic. We as programmers focus more on the quality.
Artistic director Karol Piekarczyk explains, “There is a culture of watching films and of watching films with subtitles in Poland. There are a lot of arthouse cinemas, in comparison to the U.K. for example. Even in small cities.”
Piekarczyk has worked for the festival for the past seven years and this edition will be his fourth as artistic director. He sees his job as “reminding everyone that our priority is and has always been the audience. However, we are a documentary festival, and whether we like it or not, audiences mainly choose films based on topic. We as programmers focus more on the quality.
- 5/8/2024
- by Murtada Elfadl
- Variety Film + TV
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
Princ Films boards ‘Isabel’s Garden’ For Cannes Marche Du Film
Princ Films has boarded Kit Rich’s debut Isabel’s Garden for the upcoming Marche Du Film in Cannes. Isabel’s Garden stars Karen David (Fear the Walking Dead) as a small-town TV reporter who has to raise a teenage stepdaughter in the wake of her husband’s death. The film also stars Gabriela Flores (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), Valery Ortiz (Skeletons in the Closet) and Manuel Rafael Lozano (Teen Wolf: The Movie). Its premiere won the Poppy Jasper Best Feature Film 2024 at the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival. “To be at the Marche du Film is an incredible opportunity to share Isabel’s Garden with the world,” said Igor Princ, president of Princ Films. “Isabel’s Garden has a huge heart and deeply touches those who watch it.” Isabel’s Garden was produced by Giovanna Andolina, Manuel Rafael Lozano and Rich.
Princ Films has boarded Kit Rich’s debut Isabel’s Garden for the upcoming Marche Du Film in Cannes. Isabel’s Garden stars Karen David (Fear the Walking Dead) as a small-town TV reporter who has to raise a teenage stepdaughter in the wake of her husband’s death. The film also stars Gabriela Flores (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), Valery Ortiz (Skeletons in the Closet) and Manuel Rafael Lozano (Teen Wolf: The Movie). Its premiere won the Poppy Jasper Best Feature Film 2024 at the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival. “To be at the Marche du Film is an incredible opportunity to share Isabel’s Garden with the world,” said Igor Princ, president of Princ Films. “Isabel’s Garden has a huge heart and deeply touches those who watch it.” Isabel’s Garden was produced by Giovanna Andolina, Manuel Rafael Lozano and Rich.
- 5/3/2024
- by Max Goldbart, Hannah Abraham and Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The UK’s Sheffield DocFest is creating a special programme of talks and screenings called ‘Days Of Reflection’ focused on themes of co-resistance, freedom of the press, ancestral lands and archiving the present for its 31st edition (June 12-17).
It will form a central focus for this year’s overall festival theme of Reflections On Realities.
“This year, recognising the interconnected challenges of rising polarisation, 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 a charity committed to advancing the art of documentary,...
It will form a central focus for this year’s overall festival theme of Reflections On Realities.
“This year, recognising the interconnected challenges of rising polarisation, 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 a charity committed to advancing the art of documentary,...
- 5/3/2024
- ScreenDaily
Safe to assume the ongoing atrocities in Gaza will engender cinema, fiction and documentary alike, further into the future than we can imagine. Decades of aggression have yielded, in just this last year, the TIFF selection Alam and Berlinale winner No Other Land; if what absurd, horrific controversy the latter quickly engendered is any indication, the industry faces many moments of reckoning. It remains to be seen what, if any, attention comes from Lyd, a “sci-fi documentary” that examines the eponymous city––once Palestinian, now Israeli, and since 1948 a site of considerable exile and strife––from its imagined perspective. Ahead of an April 26 engagement that starts at New York’s Firehouse Cinema, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer.
Here’s the synopsis for Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland’s film: “Lyd is a speculative feature-length documentary that follows the rise and fall of Lyd – a 5,000-year-old metropolis...
Here’s the synopsis for Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland’s film: “Lyd is a speculative feature-length documentary that follows the rise and fall of Lyd – a 5,000-year-old metropolis...
- 4/3/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
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
Alessandra Celesia’s The Flats scooped the main Dox:Award prize at Cph:Dox in Copenhagen this evening.
The film depicts a run-down Belfast housing estate, where echoes of conflict in Northern Ireland still haunt the lives of the residents.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The Flats is a co-production between France’s Films de Force Majeure, the UK’s Dumbworld Productions, Ireland’s Planet Korda Pictures and Belgium’s Thank You & Good Night Productions.
The Cph:dox jury praised it for “not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realise when the story outgrows its framework,...
The film depicts a run-down Belfast housing estate, where echoes of conflict in Northern Ireland still haunt the lives of the residents.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The Flats is a co-production between France’s Films de Force Majeure, the UK’s Dumbworld Productions, Ireland’s Planet Korda Pictures and Belgium’s Thank You & Good Night Productions.
The Cph:dox jury praised it for “not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realise when the story outgrows its framework,...
- 3/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Off-screen at least, Berlinale was a political mess this year. The final edition of director Carlo Chatrian, who came from Locarno six years ago and brought his adventurous taste with him, was marred by conflict. The festival began with prominent and necessary protests against genocide in Gaza and controversy over the invitation (later revoked) of leaders from Germany’s far-right AfD party. And it ended ugly, when No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham, who made his film with a Palestinian-Israeli collective of filmmakers and activists, received death threats and had his family in Israel menaced after his acceptance speech for its […]
The post Critic’s Notebook: The 2024 Berlin International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Critic’s Notebook: The 2024 Berlin International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/21/2024
- by Steve Dollar
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Off-screen at least, Berlinale was a political mess this year. The final edition of director Carlo Chatrian, who came from Locarno six years ago and brought his adventurous taste with him, was marred by conflict. The festival began with prominent and necessary protests against genocide in Gaza and controversy over the invitation (later revoked) of leaders from Germany’s far-right AfD party. And it ended ugly, when No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham, who made his film with a Palestinian-Israeli collective of filmmakers and activists, received death threats and had his family in Israel menaced after his acceptance speech for its […]
The post Critic’s Notebook: The 2024 Berlin International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Critic’s Notebook: The 2024 Berlin International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/21/2024
- by Steve Dollar
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The Berlin Film Festival could face major changes aimed at preventing a repeat of this year’s award ceremony, where several winners criticized Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza and expressed support for an immediate ceasefire.
The statements, which included Ben Russell, co-director of Encounters best film winner Direct Action, using the word “genocide” to describe Israeli military action in the region and Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, co-director of best documentary winner No Other Land, referring to conditions for Palestinians as “apartheid,” set off a political firestorm within Germany. Prominent politicians, both left- and right-wing, branded the statements “antisemitic” and called for “consequences.”
On Monday night, the advisory council for Federal Cultural Events in Berlin (Kbb), the group that oversees several government-backed cultural institutions, including the Berlinale, criticized the festival and, by association, outgoing Berlinale directors Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian for not doing more to distance the festival from such Israel-critical commentary.
The statements, which included Ben Russell, co-director of Encounters best film winner Direct Action, using the word “genocide” to describe Israeli military action in the region and Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, co-director of best documentary winner No Other Land, referring to conditions for Palestinians as “apartheid,” set off a political firestorm within Germany. Prominent politicians, both left- and right-wing, branded the statements “antisemitic” and called for “consequences.”
On Monday night, the advisory council for Federal Cultural Events in Berlin (Kbb), the group that oversees several government-backed cultural institutions, including the Berlinale, criticized the festival and, by association, outgoing Berlinale directors Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian for not doing more to distance the festival from such Israel-critical commentary.
- 3/12/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“The Zone of Interest” writer/director Jonathan Glazer addressed the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict head-on during the 2024 Oscars.
“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present,” Glazer said in his acceptance speech for Best International Feature. “Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”
Glazer was joined on stage by fellow producer on the film James Wilson and its financial backer Leonard Blavatnik.
Glazer continued, “Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
The World War II period piece is set against the backdrop of Auschwitz as a German Nazi commandant (Christian Friedel) and his emotionless wife (Sandra Hüller) condone the mass-murders of Jews.
“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present,” Glazer said in his acceptance speech for Best International Feature. “Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”
Glazer was joined on stage by fellow producer on the film James Wilson and its financial backer Leonard Blavatnik.
Glazer continued, “Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
The World War II period piece is set against the backdrop of Auschwitz as a German Nazi commandant (Christian Friedel) and his emotionless wife (Sandra Hüller) condone the mass-murders of Jews.
- 3/11/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Austrian documentary sales powerhouse Autlook has been racking up sales on Ruth Beckermann’s Favoriten, which premiered in the Berlinale Encounters programme last month. It will also screen at the upcoming Cph:Dox in the Artists & Auteurs section.
Autlook has now closed deals for theatrical distribution with FilmIn (Spain), Against Gravity (Poland), Grand Film (Germany), Vertigo, Discovery (former Yugoslavia), Cinema Delicatessen (Benelux) in collaboration with Dalton, Ost For Paradis (Denmark), Lev (Israel), Ambulante (Mexico), and Filmladen in Austria.
Autlook is also reporting strong interest from Taiwan, Japan, and the USA.
The fly-on-the-wall film follows a class of kids aged seven...
Autlook has now closed deals for theatrical distribution with FilmIn (Spain), Against Gravity (Poland), Grand Film (Germany), Vertigo, Discovery (former Yugoslavia), Cinema Delicatessen (Benelux) in collaboration with Dalton, Ost For Paradis (Denmark), Lev (Israel), Ambulante (Mexico), and Filmladen in Austria.
Autlook is also reporting strong interest from Taiwan, Japan, and the USA.
The fly-on-the-wall film follows a class of kids aged seven...
- 3/7/2024
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook.Newsa Different Man.IATSE, Teamsters, and the Hollywood Basic Crafts unions began bargaining jointly with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers after a thousands-strong rally in Los Angeles. In Variety, IATSE president Matthew Loeb discusses the union’s priorities and the threat of another strike after the current contract expires on July 31.In an open letter, Carlo Chatrian, the outgoing artistic director of the Berlinale, and Mark Peranson, the festival’s head of programming, respond to the backlash that followed the closing ceremony, at which a number of award recipients called for a ceasefire in Gaza: “This year’s festival was a place for dialogue and exchange for ten days; yet once the films stopped rolling, another form of communication...
- 3/6/2024
- MUBI
The 2024 edition of the Berlinale continues to generate heated debate around Israel’s war in Gaza, with out-going Berlin festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian defending the Feb. 24 closing awards show speeches against mounting criticism from German politicians and media.
“This year’s festival was a place for dialogue and exchange for ten days; yet once the films stopped rolling, another form of communication has been taken over by politicians and the media, one which weaponizes and instrumentalizes antisemitism for political means,” Chatrian said in a letter posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
The artistic chief argued statements made on stage at Saturday’s closing awards gala were protected under German freedom of speech laws.
“No matter our individual political convictions or beliefs, we should all keep in mind that freedom of speech is an essential part of what defines a democracy. The award ceremony on Saturday, February 24 has been...
“This year’s festival was a place for dialogue and exchange for ten days; yet once the films stopped rolling, another form of communication has been taken over by politicians and the media, one which weaponizes and instrumentalizes antisemitism for political means,” Chatrian said in a letter posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
The artistic chief argued statements made on stage at Saturday’s closing awards gala were protected under German freedom of speech laws.
“No matter our individual political convictions or beliefs, we should all keep in mind that freedom of speech is an essential part of what defines a democracy. The award ceremony on Saturday, February 24 has been...
- 3/1/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Outgoing Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian has spoken out about the political discourse surrounding the festival’s closing ceremony this year.
As the Berlinale handed out prizes on Saturday night, several winning filmmakers took the opportunity in their acceptance speeches to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Instagram of the Berlinale’s Panorama section was also hacked to display messages that the festival said were antisemitic.
This led to backlash from both German politicians and festival organizers, with the Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, writing on X: “What happened yesterday at the Berlinale was an unacceptable relativization. There is no place for antisemitism in Berlin, and that also applies to the arts.” Some who delivered said speeches, including Israeli “No Other Land” filmmaker Yuval Abraham, said that they have been receiving death threats since the ceremony.
In a letter posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Chatrian wrote that...
As the Berlinale handed out prizes on Saturday night, several winning filmmakers took the opportunity in their acceptance speeches to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Instagram of the Berlinale’s Panorama section was also hacked to display messages that the festival said were antisemitic.
This led to backlash from both German politicians and festival organizers, with the Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, writing on X: “What happened yesterday at the Berlinale was an unacceptable relativization. There is no place for antisemitism in Berlin, and that also applies to the arts.” Some who delivered said speeches, including Israeli “No Other Land” filmmaker Yuval Abraham, said that they have been receiving death threats since the ceremony.
In a letter posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Chatrian wrote that...
- 3/1/2024
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety 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
The heated debate over the awards ceremony of this year’s Berlin Film Festival shows no signs of cooling down.
On Tuesday, German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann called out the Berlinale for allowing what he called “antisemitic” statements to go unchallenged at the awards gala in Berlin Saturday night. Speaking to newspapers of Germany’s Funke media group, Buschmann said the film festival “suffered serious damage” as a result and suggested there could be criminal consequences for some of the statements and slogans.
The awards ceremony for the 74th Berlinale turned sharply political as one award winner after another used their festival platform to call out the Israeli government for its actions in the war in Gaza.
Ben Russell, co-director of Direct Action, winner of the best film in Berlin’s Encounters sidebar, used the word “genocide” to describe Israeli military action in the region. Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra, whose...
On Tuesday, German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann called out the Berlinale for allowing what he called “antisemitic” statements to go unchallenged at the awards gala in Berlin Saturday night. Speaking to newspapers of Germany’s Funke media group, Buschmann said the film festival “suffered serious damage” as a result and suggested there could be criminal consequences for some of the statements and slogans.
The awards ceremony for the 74th Berlinale turned sharply political as one award winner after another used their festival platform to call out the Israeli government for its actions in the war in Gaza.
Ben Russell, co-director of Direct Action, winner of the best film in Berlin’s Encounters sidebar, used the word “genocide” to describe Israeli military action in the region. Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra, whose...
- 2/28/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, who last week picked up the best documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival, has said he has received death threats and had to cancel his flight home after German officials and Israeli media described his acceptance speech as “anti-Semitic”.
In a post on X, Abraham, who is part of a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers that took home the prize for best documentary for No Other Land, said his family has also faced physical threats since Saturday’s awards ceremony.
“A right-wing Israeli mob came to my family’s home yesterday to search for me, threatening close family members who fled to another town in the middle of the night. I am still getting death threats and had to cancel my flight home,” Abraham wrote on X.
“This happened after Israeli media and German politicians absurdly labeled my Berlinale award speech – where I...
In a post on X, Abraham, who is part of a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers that took home the prize for best documentary for No Other Land, said his family has also faced physical threats since Saturday’s awards ceremony.
“A right-wing Israeli mob came to my family’s home yesterday to search for me, threatening close family members who fled to another town in the middle of the night. I am still getting death threats and had to cancel my flight home,” Abraham wrote on X.
“This happened after Israeli media and German politicians absurdly labeled my Berlinale award speech – where I...
- 2/28/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Israeli Filmmaker Slams German Politicians for Branding Berlin Award Acceptance Speech “Antisemitic”
No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham has hit out at German politicians and the Israeli media for branding his award acceptance speech at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday as “antisemitic.”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Abraham, part of a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers that took home the prize for best documentary at the Berlinale for No Other Land, said he had received death threats and had to cancel his flight back to Israel.
“This happened after Israeli media and German politicians absurdly labeled my Berlinale award speech — where I called for equality between Israelis and Palestinians, a ceasefire and an end to apartheid — as ‘antisemitic,’ ” Abraham said on the social media platform.
“The appalling misuse of this word by Germans, not only to silence Palestinian critics of Israel, but also to silence Israelis like me who support a ceasefire that will end the killing...
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Abraham, part of a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers that took home the prize for best documentary at the Berlinale for No Other Land, said he had received death threats and had to cancel his flight back to Israel.
“This happened after Israeli media and German politicians absurdly labeled my Berlinale award speech — where I called for equality between Israelis and Palestinians, a ceasefire and an end to apartheid — as ‘antisemitic,’ ” Abraham said on the social media platform.
“The appalling misuse of this word by Germans, not only to silence Palestinian critics of Israel, but also to silence Israelis like me who support a ceasefire that will end the killing...
- 2/27/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Co-directed by an Israeli-Palestinian collective of four, No Other Land was filmed in the West Bank, in Masafer Yatta, where Israeli military and increasingly civilians have forced Palestinians out from their villages. Premiered at the 74th Berlinale, the debut feature won both the juried documentary award and the Audience Award in its section, Panorama—amply deserved honors for its adroit, affecting and infuriating portrayal of a tight-knit Palestinian community resisting Israel’s relentless campaign of expulsion. Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, two of the co-directors, are also extensively on screen. Adra, whose father was also an activist, offers the film’s primary eyes […]
The post “There is No Nice Way to Bulldoze a School”: Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham on No Other Land first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “There is No Nice Way to Bulldoze a School”: Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham on No Other Land first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/27/2024
- by Nicolas Rapold
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Co-directed by an Israeli-Palestinian collective of four, No Other Land was filmed in the West Bank, in Masafer Yatta, where Israeli military and increasingly civilians have forced Palestinians out from their villages. Premiered at the 74th Berlinale, the debut feature won both the juried documentary award and the Audience Award in its section, Panorama—amply deserved honors for its adroit, affecting and infuriating portrayal of a tight-knit Palestinian community resisting Israel’s relentless campaign of expulsion. Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, two of the co-directors, are also extensively on screen. Adra, whose father was also an activist, offers the film’s primary eyes […]
The post “There is No Nice Way to Bulldoze a School”: Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham on No Other Land first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “There is No Nice Way to Bulldoze a School”: Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham on No Other Land first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/27/2024
- by Nicolas Rapold
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Yuval Abraham criticises German officials, saying statement devalues term ‘antisemitism’ and puts Jewish lives in danger
An Israeli film-maker who won one of the top prizes at the Berlin film festival has said German officials’ description of the awards ceremony as “antisemitic” has led to death threats and the physical intimidation of family members, causing him to hold off plans to return to Israel.
Yuval Abraham, 29, was on Saturday awarded the Berlinale’s best documentary award for No Other Land, which charts the eradication of Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank.
An Israeli film-maker who won one of the top prizes at the Berlin film festival has said German officials’ description of the awards ceremony as “antisemitic” has led to death threats and the physical intimidation of family members, causing him to hold off plans to return to Israel.
Yuval Abraham, 29, was on Saturday awarded the Berlinale’s best documentary award for No Other Land, which charts the eradication of Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank.
- 2/27/2024
- by Philip Oltermann European culture editor
- The Guardian - Film News
The Berlin Film Festival said Monday that it has filed criminal charges following the hacking of its Panorama section’s Instagram social media site, which was used to post antisemitic messages.
After a politically charged edition, festival organizers also attempted to distance the Berlinale management from the stances taken by some of the awards winners at Saturday’s closing ceremony.
The organizers said on Sunday, the day after the festival concluded, “The Instagram channel of the Berlinale Panorama section was briefly hacked and antisemitic image-text posts about the Middle East war with the Berlinale logo were posted on the channel. These statements do not originate from the festival and do not represent the festival’s stance.”
Organizers added: “The Berlinale condemns this criminal act in the strongest possible terms and has deleted the posts and launched an investigation. In addition, the Berlinale has filed criminal charges against unknown persons. The...
After a politically charged edition, festival organizers also attempted to distance the Berlinale management from the stances taken by some of the awards winners at Saturday’s closing ceremony.
The organizers said on Sunday, the day after the festival concluded, “The Instagram channel of the Berlinale Panorama section was briefly hacked and antisemitic image-text posts about the Middle East war with the Berlinale logo were posted on the channel. These statements do not originate from the festival and do not represent the festival’s stance.”
Organizers added: “The Berlinale condemns this criminal act in the strongest possible terms and has deleted the posts and launched an investigation. In addition, the Berlinale has filed criminal charges against unknown persons. The...
- 2/27/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin has disgraced itself as both a festival and a host city. The trouble started months before the festival began, as it was announced last summer that Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian — who helped steer the world’s largest festival through the pandemic, and worked to maintain a measure of glitz and glamor while also displaying a curatorial precision that’s unheard of for an event of this size — would not be invited to return for the 2025 edition as part of a cost-cutting measure instituted by the German government.
That news anticipated a festival that would repeatedly fail to reconcile the realities of art and politics — or to even acknowledge its responsibility to try — at a time when pretending as if those two forces can be siloed away from each other feels delusional on its face (bonus irony: The Berlinale was first proposed by an American officer who felt an international...
That news anticipated a festival that would repeatedly fail to reconcile the realities of art and politics — or to even acknowledge its responsibility to try — at a time when pretending as if those two forces can be siloed away from each other feels delusional on its face (bonus irony: The Berlinale was first proposed by an American officer who felt an international...
- 2/26/2024
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The Berlinale has filed criminal charges against unknown persons who over the weekend hacked the film festival’s social media channel and posted a Gaza Ceasefire message with the festival’s logo and branding.
The festival criticized the posts as “anti-Semitic” in regards to the ongoing Israeli and Palestinian conflict in Gaza. The festival quickly deleted the posts, which appeared on Sunday, January 25, and have launched an investigation into the hacking.
“On Sunday, February 25, the Instagram channel of the Berlinale Panorama section was briefly hacked and anti-Semitic image-text posts about the Middle East war with the Berlinale logo were posted on the channel,” the festival statement reads. “These statements do not originate from the festival and do not represent the festival’s stance. The posts were deleted immediately and an investigation was launched into how this incident could have occurred. The Berlinale condemns this criminal act in the strongest possible...
The festival criticized the posts as “anti-Semitic” in regards to the ongoing Israeli and Palestinian conflict in Gaza. The festival quickly deleted the posts, which appeared on Sunday, January 25, and have launched an investigation into the hacking.
“On Sunday, February 25, the Instagram channel of the Berlinale Panorama section was briefly hacked and anti-Semitic image-text posts about the Middle East war with the Berlinale logo were posted on the channel,” the festival statement reads. “These statements do not originate from the festival and do not represent the festival’s stance. The posts were deleted immediately and an investigation was launched into how this incident could have occurred. The Berlinale condemns this criminal act in the strongest possible...
- 2/26/2024
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Berlin Film Festival organizers say they have brought criminal charges against unnamed hackers of its Instagram page for briefly posting statements seen as antisemitic on Sunday.
The Berlinale in a statement said the Instagram channel for its Panorama sidebar was briefly hacked on Sunday and “anti-semitic image-text posts about the Middle East war with the Berlinale logo were posted on the channel.”
The fest organizers said the statements did not come from the Berlinale or represent the festival’s stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict. “The Berlinale condemns this criminal act in the strongest possible terms and has deleted the posts and launched an investigation. In addition, the Berlinale has filed criminal charges against unknown persons. The Lka (the state criminal office) has begun an investigation,” the festival added.
The Berlinale’s definition of what might be considered antisemitism differs from the the German criminal code. The hacking incident would be judged illegal,...
The Berlinale in a statement said the Instagram channel for its Panorama sidebar was briefly hacked on Sunday and “anti-semitic image-text posts about the Middle East war with the Berlinale logo were posted on the channel.”
The fest organizers said the statements did not come from the Berlinale or represent the festival’s stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict. “The Berlinale condemns this criminal act in the strongest possible terms and has deleted the posts and launched an investigation. In addition, the Berlinale has filed criminal charges against unknown persons. The Lka (the state criminal office) has begun an investigation,” the festival added.
The Berlinale’s definition of what might be considered antisemitism differs from the the German criminal code. The hacking incident would be judged illegal,...
- 2/26/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Reviewing No Other Land out of Berlinale, Rory O’Connor described the “disorienting and dispiriting landscape” into which it was premiering. Quite an understatement to say the city of Berlin and its major-market festival fumbled through any response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, against which many filmmakers who’ve attended the festival in years past have spoken out. As Rory summarizes:
“The film premiered this week at the Berlinale, a festival mired in recent controversies in a country that is failing to acknowledge the limits of its own guilt. In the month leading up to the festival, several filmmakers pulled their work from the selection to protest the lack of Palestinian solidarity. Workers of the festival then released an open letter calling for the festival’s organizers to demand a ceasefire. In the weeks leading up, the city’s cultural minister, Joe Chialo, had to backtrack on a proposed ‘anti-discrimination...
“The film premiered this week at the Berlinale, a festival mired in recent controversies in a country that is failing to acknowledge the limits of its own guilt. In the month leading up to the festival, several filmmakers pulled their work from the selection to protest the lack of Palestinian solidarity. Workers of the festival then released an open letter calling for the festival’s organizers to demand a ceasefire. In the weeks leading up, the city’s cultural minister, Joe Chialo, had to backtrack on a proposed ‘anti-discrimination...
- 2/26/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
“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
The Berlinale has been criticised by local politicians from the Berlin house of representatives for anti-war statements made by award-winners and jury members at the closing night gala on Saturday February 24.
Joe Chialo, senator for cultural affairs, said on X [formerly Twitter]: “Culture should offer a space for diverse political opinions, but this year’s award ceremony of the Berlinale was marked by self-righteous anti-Israeli propaganda that has no place on the stages of Berlin.”
Speaking to local broadcaster Rbb, Melanie Kühnemann-Grunow, spokesperson on media policy for the Social Democrats (Spd), said, “The Berlinale has suffered damage - whether this...
Joe Chialo, senator for cultural affairs, said on X [formerly Twitter]: “Culture should offer a space for diverse political opinions, but this year’s award ceremony of the Berlinale was marked by self-righteous anti-Israeli propaganda that has no place on the stages of Berlin.”
Speaking to local broadcaster Rbb, Melanie Kühnemann-Grunow, spokesperson on media policy for the Social Democrats (Spd), said, “The Berlinale has suffered damage - whether this...
- 2/26/2024
- ScreenDaily
A high-politicized edition of the Berlin Film Festival ended Saturday, but divisions surrounding political messaging during the festival appear to be ongoing.
Sunday afternoon, the official Berlinale shared a statement on its social media account announcing that it plans to “file criminal charges against unknown persons” who it said shared “posts about the war in the Middle East.” The posts mentioned by the festival were shared on the official Berlinale Panorama Instagram account and featured a series of infographics.
“Genocide is Genocide. We are all complicit,” the first infographic said.
Another post claimed that festival staff had decided to “shed the idea that German guilt absolves us of our country’s history or our current crimes,” and in turn, they have decided to call for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” to violence in Gaza.
The posts ended with the message: “From our unresolved Nazi past to our genocidal present — we...
Sunday afternoon, the official Berlinale shared a statement on its social media account announcing that it plans to “file criminal charges against unknown persons” who it said shared “posts about the war in the Middle East.” The posts mentioned by the festival were shared on the official Berlinale Panorama Instagram account and featured a series of infographics.
“Genocide is Genocide. We are all complicit,” the first infographic said.
Another post claimed that festival staff had decided to “shed the idea that German guilt absolves us of our country’s history or our current crimes,” and in turn, they have decided to call for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” to violence in Gaza.
The posts ended with the message: “From our unresolved Nazi past to our genocidal present — we...
- 2/26/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey, about artefacts being returned from Paris to present-day Benin, was awarded the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (February 24).
The film, handled internationally by Les Film du Losange, is the second from the African continent to take the Berlinale’s top prize after Mark Dornford-May’s musical U-Carmen eKhayelitsha in 2005. It is also the second year in a row that a documentary has clinched the Golden Bear, following Nicolas Philibert’s On The Adamant last year.
In her speech, Diop said: “To restitute is to do justice. We can...
The film, handled internationally by Les Film du Losange, is the second from the African continent to take the Berlinale’s top prize after Mark Dornford-May’s musical U-Carmen eKhayelitsha in 2005. It is also the second year in a row that a documentary has clinched the Golden Bear, following Nicolas Philibert’s On The Adamant last year.
In her speech, Diop said: “To restitute is to do justice. We can...
- 2/24/2024
- ScreenDaily
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
Dahomey, a documentary from French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, has won the Golden Bear for best film at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.
The multifaceted docu-fictional essay explores the return, in November 2021, of plundered royal treasures of the African Kingdom of Dahomey from Paris to the present-day Republic of Benin, examining the complicated response of those in Benin, whose culture has developed for more than a century without these artifacts.
While taking the stage to accept her award, Diop made a direct political statement, calling out, “I stand with Palestine!”
Jury president, the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong’o, announced the Golden Bear winner from the stage of the Berlinale Palast Saturday night. Nyong’o is the first Black and first African to chair the Berlinale jury.
Dahomey is only the second African film to win the top prize at Berlin, following Mark Dornford-May’s...
The multifaceted docu-fictional essay explores the return, in November 2021, of plundered royal treasures of the African Kingdom of Dahomey from Paris to the present-day Republic of Benin, examining the complicated response of those in Benin, whose culture has developed for more than a century without these artifacts.
While taking the stage to accept her award, Diop made a direct political statement, calling out, “I stand with Palestine!”
Jury president, the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong’o, announced the Golden Bear winner from the stage of the Berlinale Palast Saturday night. Nyong’o is the first Black and first African to chair the Berlinale jury.
Dahomey is only the second African film to win the top prize at Berlin, following Mark Dornford-May’s...
- 2/24/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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
Basel Adra’s first memory is of Israeli soldiers raiding his house and arresting his father, a Palestinian activist who’s been fighting to preserve the small mountain community of Masafer Yatta since long before his son was born. Adra was only five years old at the time, but he can still remember the fear of that violation as if it only happened yesterday.
In part, that’s because it did; raised in an occupied territory under Apartheid conditions, Adra has never known a life that wasn’t under threat of forced removal. But the freshness of his memory can also be attributed to the fact that Adra has never known a life that wasn’t being documented for his own protection. The most dehumanizing episodes of his existence have all been captured on camera by his family and their fellow villagers, the footage preserved and shared in the hopes...
In part, that’s because it did; raised in an occupied territory under Apartheid conditions, Adra has never known a life that wasn’t under threat of forced removal. But the freshness of his memory can also be attributed to the fact that Adra has never known a life that wasn’t being documented for his own protection. The most dehumanizing episodes of his existence have all been captured on camera by his family and their fellow villagers, the footage preserved and shared in the hopes...
- 2/23/2024
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
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
Cph: Dox, Copenhagen’s International Documentary Festival, has set the full lineup for its 2024 edition, including 84 world premieres, 32 international premieres, and 9 European premieres.
Running March 13-24, the festival will feature six competition categories: Dox: Award, F: Act Award, Nordic: Dox Award, Next: Wave Award, New: Vision Award, and the new Human: Rights Award.
Musician Pete Doherty will attend the festival for a screening of Peter Doherty: Stranger in My Own Skin. The event will take place on March 18 at Bremen Theater, when he and the film’s director Katia de Vidas – who became Doherty’s wife over the ten years she followed him with her camera – openly discuss the substance abuse that has shadowed his entire career. After the screening, Doherty will give an acoustic concert. Other high-profile titles include Lana Wilson’s Look Into My Eyes, Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s Gaucho Gaucho, Carla Gutierrez’s Frida, Yance Ford’s Power,...
Running March 13-24, the festival will feature six competition categories: Dox: Award, F: Act Award, Nordic: Dox Award, Next: Wave Award, New: Vision Award, and the new Human: Rights Award.
Musician Pete Doherty will attend the festival for a screening of Peter Doherty: Stranger in My Own Skin. The event will take place on March 18 at Bremen Theater, when he and the film’s director Katia de Vidas – who became Doherty’s wife over the ten years she followed him with her camera – openly discuss the substance abuse that has shadowed his entire career. After the screening, Doherty will give an acoustic concert. Other high-profile titles include Lana Wilson’s Look Into My Eyes, Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s Gaucho Gaucho, Carla Gutierrez’s Frida, Yance Ford’s Power,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline 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
One of the ways in which the Berlinale is addressing the large, complex issue of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is by channelling it into a small, safe space called The Tiny House.
The Tiny House project is a cabin-like structure, set up near the festival’s hub in Potsdamer Platz for three days from February 17-19. Festival attendees and interested members of the public can come in and discuss their feelings around the issue, with the support of two moderators, Shai Hoffmann and Ahmad Dakhnous.
Hoffman, a German Jew with Israeli roots, is the architect of the project. With his German-Palestinian colleague Jouanna Hassoun,...
The Tiny House project is a cabin-like structure, set up near the festival’s hub in Potsdamer Platz for three days from February 17-19. Festival attendees and interested members of the public can come in and discuss their feelings around the issue, with the support of two moderators, Shai Hoffmann and Ahmad Dakhnous.
Hoffman, a German Jew with Israeli roots, is the architect of the project. With his German-Palestinian colleague Jouanna Hassoun,...
- 2/19/2024
- ScreenDaily
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
As the Israel-Hamas war continues to rage in Gaza, repercussions are being felt at the Berlinale, which looks to be one of the most politically charged editions in recent history.
Several filmmakers have already canceled their participation to the festival in protest of Germany’s attitude towards Palestinian voices, while more than 50 Berlinale workers have signed an open letter this week demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and asking that the festival leadership take a “stronger institutional stance” on what the statement calls “the current assault on Palestinian life” and calling on the festival to take a stance that is “consistent with those taken in response to other events that have struck the international community in recent years.”
The war in Gaza followed Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages taken. As the death toll continues to rise, with nearly 30,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza...
Several filmmakers have already canceled their participation to the festival in protest of Germany’s attitude towards Palestinian voices, while more than 50 Berlinale workers have signed an open letter this week demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and asking that the festival leadership take a “stronger institutional stance” on what the statement calls “the current assault on Palestinian life” and calling on the festival to take a stance that is “consistent with those taken in response to other events that have struck the international community in recent years.”
The war in Gaza followed Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages taken. As the death toll continues to rise, with nearly 30,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza...
- 2/16/2024
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
The Berlin International Film Festival, which kicks off Feb. 15, is already preparing for protests and debate surrounding the ongoing war in the Middle East, protests of the kind that have shaken up film festivals throughout the world in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
At Sundance in January, several hundred pro-Palestinian protesters, including actors Melissa Barrera and Indya Moore, shut down traffic on Main Street in Park City. In November, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) was caught between demonstrators on both sides of the issue, with several directors pulling their films in protest over IDFA statements in reference to the war.
Berlin, the world’s largest public film festival — and by some measures the most political of the big fests — is set to become a focus point for similar demonstrations and debates.
But Berlin is different. Confrontations over events in...
At Sundance in January, several hundred pro-Palestinian protesters, including actors Melissa Barrera and Indya Moore, shut down traffic on Main Street in Park City. In November, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) was caught between demonstrators on both sides of the issue, with several directors pulling their films in protest over IDFA statements in reference to the war.
Berlin, the world’s largest public film festival — and by some measures the most political of the big fests — is set to become a focus point for similar demonstrations and debates.
But Berlin is different. Confrontations over events in...
- 2/8/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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