By FRANCISCO FOOT HARDMAN*

Commentary on the documentary, currently showing in cinemas, directed by Basel Adra & Yuval Abraham

Because one thing is certain: if you no longer have a foothold, cling to life. This is the greatest lesson in humanity that the images of this almost impossible film teach us. This is a film about resistance, making a film in the setting of an old group of Palestinian villages (Masafer Yatta), nestled in the heart of the West Bank, only by clinging to life in a scorched land, invaded by Israeli tanks and soldiers, day after day, in the service of Sio-Nazism, by robotic and violent Jewish settlers like the old and worst executioners of the Holocaust.

And, in the greatest pain of expulsion, of poor houses and sheepfolds razed by bulldozers in the service of Evil, of the extermination of indistinguishable humans and animals, of the demolition of a primary school built as a civilizing landmark of a people that never dies, there still remain signs of life brighter than any ray of bomb or bullet: they are those beautiful faces of its unbreakable women and the smiles of its suffering children that remain with us, that insist on being recorded as testimonies that Palestine lives and will live until just peace and its right to that land, already recognized and declared long ago, are guaranteed by the entire world.

Because if the Terminators of the Present – ​​the bloodthirsty Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump – want to kill and expel every last Palestinian from Gaza, there will always be a village in Masafer Yatta that will rise from the ashes and the desert of blood-spattered rocks and sands, whether in the West Bank or in destroyed Gaza, which will revive the voices, bodies, art and language of the Palestinian people beyond the caves where they hide, beyond the mass graves where those murderers want them, to tell all of us, here, on this side of the borders of horror, that there will always be life, memory and struggle in the rebirth of a community that no state violence will be able to erase from the map.

Not even if Google cynically changes the name of the map. Not even if the brutal exterminators of the Present, armed with the most powerful weapons but powerless over the fate of History, want to continue their game of cheap assassins dressed up as Evil Sheriffs, Death Rattlers, and disgusting little students of Adolf Hitler.

Because Without ground is not a typical war film. What stands out from the remarkable effort that went into its production is, above all, the friendship that brings together a young Israeli journalist and filmmaker dissatisfied with the ferocious direction of Sio-Nazism in his country (Yuval Abraham) and a young Palestinian activist living in Masafer Yatta (Basel Adra), who since childhood learned, from his father and other people in the community, that it was necessary to resist the genocidal and neo-colonialist brutality of the invaders of the West Bank.

The two directors-protagonists were joined, in a brilliant collaboration, by the young Israeli photographer and filmmaker Rachel Szor and the Palestinian photographer-filmmaker Hamdan Ballal. Filmed over almost 5 years, between 2019 and 2023, and reporting old images recorded by Basel Adra and his family a long time ago, the film that has come down to us, filmed and edited with great difficulty, is a marvel of cinematic art and the historical resistance of a people.

With production support from Norway, in addition to significant contributions from the Sundance Festival, No More Land (whose most literal translation is: “No other land”, but whose release title in Brazil is: No Floor) is one of the five finalists for the current Oscar in the feature-length documentary category. Judging by the boycott operations against its distribution in Europe, as well as in major exhibition circuits in the US, it seems that it will have little chance in this weekend's media awards.

However, the exceptional qualities of its production and editing have already achieved a significant track record of success and recognition. It was featured at the 48th São Paulo International Film Festival in 2024. It has also collected dozens of awards and praiseworthy mentions at independent festivals around the world, including magazines and journalists in the field. Among so many distinctions, let us remember the Best Documentary at the Berlin Festival, about a year ago.

In Brazil, we hope that this film will be seen, discussed and remembered by many people. And in São Paulo, where a large Palestinian community lives, there will certainly be space and interest in screening it. Without ground in various locations, centers and events, starting with the new and very welcome Center for Palestinian Studies (CEPal) at FFLCH-USP. When it opened in October 2024, we had the presence, among so many voices allied to a cause that belongs to all humanity, of the former Minister of Culture of the Palestinian National Authority, Atef Abu Saif, survivor of the Gaza massacre and author of a compelling report, also translated and published in Brazil, I want to be awake when I die (Ed. Elefante). In his speech, he emphasized the following: “The war launched against Palestine is a war against our memory, our culture, our narrative of facts and events. The role of the Minister of Culture is to preserve this memory and maintain such narratives. Culture is the main front line to defend the national cause, in our case.”[I]

The images and narratives of Without ground They make us think, beyond the valley of tears and dust of Masafer Yatta, of the lives that emerge from there, even stronger, even more beautiful, even more lucid. Because if you haven't seen this small masterpiece of art and resistance, hurry up and watch it now. And join these ancient and perennial people. Who do not beg us for any weapon. Only the supportive understanding that their humanity is ours, and that is how their story can be told, lived and shared by all cultures worthy of still inhabiting this planet.

*Francisco Foot Hardman is a full professor of Literature and Other Cultural Productions at Unicamp. Author of, among other books, My Tropical China: Travel Chronicles (unesp).

Reference

Without ground [No other land]
Norway, 2024, documentary, 95 minutes.
Directed by: Basel Adra & Yuval Abraham
Screenplay: Rachel Szor
Cast: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor.

Note

[I] Reproduced from an interview with Karolina Monte in: “'The war in Gaza is a war against Palestinian memory,' says writer and Gaza survivor Atef Abu Saif”, Brazil of Fact, 20/10/2024.

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