No Other Land
Year: 2024
Rating: Not Rated
Length: 92 minutes / 1.53 hours
Documentaries like No Other Land (2024) are not fun. They are necessary. Sure, I’d much rather watch a documentary about street art or an octopus, but a film like this shows just how bad it is in a war-torn part of the world that maybe gets a few minutes a day on a news broadcast. Bringing the human aspects of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians into focus paints a picture that’s hard to ignore. There’s a reason this movie won several awards for its content because it’s necessary viewing to understand what’s happening in that region.
What’s initially shocking is how long the territorial conflict between Israel and Palestine has been happening. That the Palestinians have put up with this treatment for decades isn’t really about their persistence but more about the fact that they have nowhere else to go (thus the title of this documentary). It’s depressing to see that activism doesn’t have much of an affect at all on the situation, despite the clear evidence that one side is being the bully here and using force to get their way. These tactics are basically war crimes and shouldn’t be tolerated.
There is some positivity here with the Israeli journalist joining this cause. Despite the differences in their beliefs, they can see with the footage they collect that the blatant destruction of these Palestinian homes is founded in cruelty from the Israeli government, not necessarily from the people of Israel (even if the soldiers themselves are Israeli). And even if the tragic events captured in this film seem to be endless, it’s important that as many people as possible see this movie to bear witness to the destruction. I don’t think I’ll watch this again, but I’m glad I at least gave it a chance.
A difficult movie that captures the cruelty of a current war, I give No Other Land 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
