‘No Other Land' Co-Director Hamdan Ballal Freed, Says Yuval Abraham
Hamdan Ballal, one of the Palestinian co-directors of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, has been freed after being detained and beaten, according to the documentary's Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham.
According to Abraham, Ballal was yesterday attacked by a mob of Israeli settlers close to his West Bank village on Monday and then arrested by soldiers. The move sparked outcry among many in the international and U.S. film community.
In a post on X yesterday, Abraham reported: 'A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film No Other Land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called and took him. No sign of him since.'
Ballal is one of four co-directors on No Other Land, alongside fellow Palestinian filmmaker and activist Basel Adra, Abraham and Israeli cinematographer, editor and director Rachel Szor.
Shot between 2019 and 2023, No Other Land captures the struggle of people living in the West Bank Palestinian villages of Masafer Yatta in the face of attempts by Israeli authorities and settlers to erase their homes and history from the map.
Israeli settlers have continued to attack the area since the film's Oscar win on March 2.
According to reports on website of Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the attack happened around 6 p.m. local time in Ballal's West Bank village of Susya, when a settler approached Palestinian homes and was asked to leave by residents.
Dozens of settlers then appeared, according to local reports, and started attacking villagers with stones and blows, as well as destroying local infrastructure such as water tanks and smashing car windows.
The International Documentary Association said in a statement Monday, 'We demand Ballal's immediate release and that his family and community be informed about his condition, location and the justification for his detention.'
The documentary follows the journey of Adra as he documents the devastation of his hometown, after it is designated for Israeli military training. His efforts to raise awareness gain momentum with the support of Israeli journalist Abraham, who amplifies his narrative.
The work world-premiered at 2023 Berlinale, where it won the Audience Award and Berlinale Documentary Award, with Abraham sparking controversy after he criticized a 'situation of apartheid' in Israel and called for a ceasefire in Gaza in his acceptance speech.
Abraham subsequently received death threats and was accused of antisemitism. The journalist and filmmaker, who is descended from a family that was decimated in the Holocaust, has categorically refuted these accusations.
Since its premiere, No Other Land has won 68 film festival and annual prizes, including the BAFTA Award, European Film Award, IDA Awards and Gotham Independent Film Awards.
The filmmakers instead opted for a self-distribution in partnership with Cinetic Media, which facilitated theatrical bookings. The documentary premiered on February 2 on a single screen, grossing $26,000, and continued to thrive for four additional weeks, surpassing the $1.2 million mark and expanding to 120 screens.
The film landed in the eye of a fresh storm this month when Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner proposed terminating a lease agreement with indie cinema O Cinema due its screening of the film, saying the pic failed a to present a fair and balanced view. He was forced to stand down by local opposition to the move.
More than 600 people including several Oscar winners signed an open letter to the city decrying the theater's potential shutdown as 'an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment.'
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