UPDATE: Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the Oscar-winning Israel-Palestine documentary “No Other Land,” has been freed, according to the latest post from co-director Yuval Abraham.
“After being handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and is about to go home to his family,” Abraham posted on X on Tuesday.
PREVIOUSLY: A petition to free Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the Oscar-winning Israel-Palestine documentary “No Other Land,” has gathered more than 3,700 signatures on Change.org.
Ballal is reportedly missing after being attacked, according to a series of posts on X from co-director Yuval Abraham.
“We, members of the global film community urgently appeal for the immediate release and safety of filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, co-director of ‘No Other Land,’ the recipient of this year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Reports that Mr. Ballal was forcibly removed by the Israeli army from an ambulance following a brutal attack by settlers, and subsequently detained without clear information regarding his whereabouts, deeply alarm us. Such treatment of an internationally acclaimed filmmaker gravely undermines artistic freedom, human rights, and freedom of speech — core values vital to democratic societies.
We urge immediate intervention to secure Ballal’s safety, prompt release, access to his family, and legal counsel,” the petition states.
The petition is signed by Roger Ross Williams, Alex Gibney, Christine Vachon, Liz Garbus, Ezra Edelman, Dan Cogan, Kristi Jacobson, Julie Goldman, Lee Hirsch, Joslyn Barnes, Fisher Stevens, Dawn Porter, Rory Kennedy, Yance Ford, Laura Nix, Marjan Safinia, Julia Bacha, Simon Kilmurry, Jean Tsien, Jihan Robinson, Sandi Dubowski, Yoruba Richen, Lisa Valencia-Svensson, Ryan Werner, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Daniel Chalfen, S. Leo Chiang, Heidi Ewing, Ivy Meeropol, Maite Alberdi, Beth Levison, Nanfu Wang, Doug Blush, Smriti Mundhra, Steve Maing, Doug Block, Marie Therese Guirgis, Wendy Ettinger, Sonya Childress, David Teague, Susan Margolin, Ferne Pearlstein and Geralyn Dreyfous.
Made as an Israeli-Palestinian collective, “No Other Land” follows a Palestinian family living in the West Bank as their home gets destroyed by the Israeli government and they face displacement. But amidst the dire conditions, Adra and Abraham, an Israeli journalist, form an unexpected friendship and work together to document the story.
The film first premiered at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it earned top documentary jury and audience prizes. The documentary continued to earn critical acclaim attention on the fall festival circuit, where it played at the Toronto, Vancouver and New York film festivals. Despite this, the film still doesn’t have a U.S. distributor, leading the filmmakers to self-release the film in New York City on Jan. 31 and Los Angeles on Feb. 7.
