42/22

The house you live in is bulldozed

Story

This Palestinian-Israeli collective film shows the destruction of Masafer Jatta in the occupied West Bank by Israeli soldiers and the alliance between Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval. Imagine. Imagine you have a choice: live in a cave or build a new house. Imagine having to watch bulldozers destroy your new home.

The film hits like a punch in the stomach

Documented in No Other Land, it makes the blood boil. The film shows how Israeli occupiers systematically destroy a village in the West Bank. Its citizens are protesting, holding demonstrations and starting legal proceedings, but nothing can stop the process. Much of the material is shot with small handheld cameras or smartphones, giving it a real sense of authenticity.

Although friendship might not be the right word

Another strength of the film is that it not only documents the demolition of the buildings, but also the friendship between Basel, a Palestinian activist, and Yuval, an Israeli journalist who wants to raise public awareness of injustice. They are colleagues and brothers in arms, but the difference between them is always felt. "You have to learn to lose," Basel tells Yuval when the reporter notices that there hasn't been much interest in his stories. "We have been fighting for decades, the situation cannot be changed in a few days" Yuval's involvement adds an extra layer to the film.

It reminded me of similar documentaries like 'Par Sama' or '20 days in Mariupol'

To the Palestinians, he will always be a "yehudi"; on the other hand, who can go home to their comfortable life. But to his Israeli colleagues, he sympathizes with the enemy, and they accuse him of complicity in Palestinian activism. The film contains calm moments of Basel and Yuval discussing the situation around an open fire or smoking a hookah, but also shocking images of villagers being gunned down, in one case paralyzing the victim and leaving him to live a miserable life without proper care, the film has a huge emotional impact. The filmmakers stopped filming in October 2023, when everything changed in Israel and Palestine.

Of course, the events of the last 12 months give the film extra urgency

We know that the village is a symbol of a much greater injustice, bloodshed and cruelty. We also know that now it is not just houses that are being destroyed, but the lives of thousands of innocent people.