‘No Other Land’ Documentary, Once Vilified in Germany as ‘Antisemitic,’ Makes Oscars Shortlist

A controversial Palestinian-Israeli documentary, “No Other Land,” has made the Oscar shortlist, a pivotal step towards a potential nomination ahead of the 97th Oscars ceremony in March.The film, directed by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and Palestinian journalist Basel Adra, has already won multiple international awards and is described as showing the “destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers” and an alliance that develops between the two journalists.The film, which recent reports suggest has not yet received an American distributor, has seen successes internationally, including at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. Yet the filmmakers have received intense backlash for comments made at the Berlin award ceremony. It was “very hard” to celebrate the award, “when there are tens of thousands of my people being slaughtered and massacred by Israel in Gaza,” Mr. Adra said during February’s Berlin award ceremony, per the Washington Post.“In two days, we will go back to a land where we are not equal,” the Israeli filmmaker, Mr. Abraham, said standing alongside Mr. Adra at the ceremony. “We need to call for a cease-fire.”The criticism, in response to the filmmakers speeches, was so severe that Mr. Abraham said he received death threats and even fled Israel. An array of German politicians, the outlet reports, especially criticized the filmmakers remarks, calling them “one-sided,” “unacceptable,” and having “no place” at Berlin.Mr. Abraham defended his film as a way to encourage dialogue and pushed back on German politicians who were criticizing him, the Post noted.“To demonize us, to devalue the term of antisemitism like that,” Mr. Abraham said. “How dare German politicians tell an Israeli whose entire family either survived or was murdered in the Holocaust?” He said the two filmmakers represented “an Israeli and a Palestinian calling for equality, calling for ending the war.” The film also was criticized as “antisemitic” by the city of Berlin’s official website, language that was later changed after the city apologized and noted its “assessment was incorrect and inadmissible.” Meanwhile, as the film moves forward in the Oscar nomination process, “No Other Land,” joins 14 other films in the “documentary feature film” category. There were originally 169 films eligible in that category, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noted in its Tuesday shortlist announcement.

‘No Other Land’ Documentary, Once Vilified in Germany as ‘Antisemitic,’ Makes Oscars Shortlist

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