Oscar Winner ‘No Other Land’ Finds Middle East Distribution via Front Row: ‘We Have a Duty to Make Sure It Reaches Audiences’
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land” has found a distributor in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where it is bound to have special resonance.
Prominent Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired MENA rights from Austrian outfit Autlook for the timely film, which is directed by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists: Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Basel Adra.
The doc, chronicling the gradual demolition of Palestinian houses and villages in the Masafer Yatta region of the West Bank by Israeli military bulldozers, scored the best documentary prize at last year’s Berlin Film Festival — where it debuted — and went on to play widely on the fest circuit, winning a slew of other awards prior to the Oscar.
At the Oscars ceremony, the directors made an impassioned speech: “We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people,” said Adra, a Palestinian journalist and activist. “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter is that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now … ‘No Other Land’ reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist.” Abraham, an Israeli journalist, spoke about the power of the film being a collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians. “Together, our voices are stronger,” he said. “We see each other — the destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of Oct.
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