“No Other Land” filmmaker Yuval Abraham has criticized AMPAS for not commenting on the situation surrounding his Oscar-winning fellow co-director Hamdan Ballal.
Ballal, co-director of the Oscar-winning Israel-Palestine documentary “No Other Land,” was released by Israel authorities on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Abraham posted on X: “Sadly, the U.S. Academy, which awarded us an Oscar three weeks ago, declined to publicly support Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers. The European Academy voiced support, as did countless other award groups and festivals. Several U.S. Academy members — especially in the documentary branch — pushed for a statement, but it was ultimately refused. We were told that because other Palestinians were beaten up in the settler attack, it could be considered unrelated to the film, so they felt no need to respond. In other words, while Hamdan was clearly targeted for making ‘No Other Land’ (he recalled soldiers joking about the Oscar as they tortured him), he was also targeted for being Palestinian — like countless others every day who are disregarded. This, it seems, gave the Academy an excuse to remain silent when a filmmaker they honored, living under Israeli occupation, needed them the most. It’s not too late to change this stance. Even now, issuing a statement condemning the attack on Hamdan and the Masafer Yatta community would send a meaningful message and serve as a deterrent for the future.”
Matters kicked off on Monday when Ballal reportedly missing after being attacked, according to a series of posts on X from Abraham.
“A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film ‘No Other Land,’” Abraham posted on X Monday. “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.”
The Associated Press reported that activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence saw Ballal get beat up by Israeli settlers on the scene, describing how: “A group of 10-20 masked settlers attacked him and other Jewish activists with stones and sticks, and smashed their car windows and slashed their tires.”
On Tuesday, a group of global filmmakers including Alex Gibney and Christine Vachon signed a petition for Ballal’s release, saying that “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.”
As the petition was gathering steam with more than 4,500 signatures, Abraham posted on X that Ballal had been freed. “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.
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.
