'No Other Land' wins Oscar for best documentary feature film
"No Other Land" won the Oscar for best documentary feature film.
“About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I am living now, always fearing settlers' violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements that my community Masafer Yatta is living and facing every day,” filmmaker and Palestinian activist Basel Adra said in an acceptance speech.
The project tells the story of the West Bank's Masafer Yatta community through the lens of a Palestinian activist, Adra, and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, among others.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since its victory in the Six-Day War in 1967.
Alongside the harrowing images of destruction, the film tells another story of an unlikely friendship between the two filmmakers, who were born on either side of the conflict.
"We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together, our voices are stronger," Abraham said in an acceptance speech. "We see each other, the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of Oct. 7, which must be freed."
He added, "There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path."
Israel's demolition efforts in the West Bank, of what Israel considers to be illegal structures, have largely been in an effort to clear the way for Israeli settlers to move into the region for reasons including religious beliefs and improved quality of life.
Other films nominated in the category included "Black Box Diaries," "No Other Land," "Porcelain War," "Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat" and "Sugarcane."
