The Palestinian director Basel Adra took 30 hours to reach Berlin from his home in the West Bank to attend the premiere of his documentary film "No Other Land" at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) today. In contrast, Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham only needed four hours to get to the German capital from his home, which is just half an hour away from Basel's.
The film, which took the directors five years to prepare, documents Basel's struggle to preserve his village (Masafar) amidst repeated attacks from Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank. It highlights the parallel reality experienced by the two friends; Yuval, with his yellow Israeli license plates allowing him to travel anywhere, and Basel, who lives in a confined area where Palestinians suffer.
Basel explained, "I have to request a visa, then travel from the West Bank to Jordan and continue to cross checkpoints and borders until I reach Jordan, and then travel by plane." Yuval said, "We are just 30 minutes apart under the same Israeli control, but for Basel, it might take 30 hours to get here, whereas it takes me 20 minutes to reach the airport."
The film's scenes have become familiar enough to viewers, starting from young Israeli soldiers guarding bulldozers, injured youth, crying mothers and children, and the concrete poured by workers into barren lands. However, the film crew, which also includes Palestinian photographer Hamdan Bilal and Israeli cinematographer Rachel Szor, shows the impact of such differences on the lives of the two friends.
Despite being close friends, Yuval cannot hide his sense of shame over the freedom he enjoys while Basel does not. Conversely, Basel cannot always conceal his anger toward this situation from his friend. The film was selected for the festival shortly after the war between Israel and Hamas began.
For Yuval, whose grandmother was born in a concentration camp in Libya run by German allies from the Italian fascists, the film's message is also directed toward Germany, a strong supporter of Israel. He stated, "I know that Germans feel guilty about the Holocaust, and I think they should feel guilty... but do not use that feeling of guilt as a weapon now to harm Basel's family or to support the war in Gaza that has devastated the whole place."
