No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary, will be available across the Middle East and North Africa from April 1. The Palestinian-Israeli co-production, which follows the struggles faced by inhabitants of occupied West Bank village Masafer Yatta as they try to protect their homes from demolition by Israeli settlers, will be available to rent and buy on OSN Store via set-top boxes as well as on Apple TV.
It will cost Dh19.99 to rent and Dh49.99 to purchase.
The film, which has been without a major distributor in the US, was acquired by Dubai distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment for the Mena region.
No Other Land is co-directed by two Palestinians – Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal – as well as Israelis Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Its triumph at the Academy Awards this month was the first time a documentary has won an Oscar without an American distributor. It was also Palestine's first Oscar win.
The film has received many accolades since its premiere last year at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won best documentary. It has also won top prizes from the Gotham Awards, International Documentary Association and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.
It has also drawn a furious response in Israel and abroad. This month, the mayor of Miami Beach in Florida proposed ending the lease of a cinema that screened the documentary. Steven Meiner later dropped his proposal after a majority of city commissioners opposed his plan.
No Other Land grabbed global headlines on Monday when Ballal was attacked in his village of Susiya in the West Bank, which features in the film.
“He was attacked by soldier-settlers and then abducted by soldiers – so we have no idea what happened, we just don’t know,” co-director Adra told The National.
Witnesses of the attack said that a dozen masked Israeli settlers, some armed, descended on the village. Ballal suffered injuries to his head and stomach, according to co-director Abraham.
The trio were released on Tuesday afternoon from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. Ballal had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, and the three were driven to a hospital in the neighbouring Palestinian city of Hebron.
After his release, Ballal told reporters soldiers and settlers beat him and threatened him with guns. “The soldiers shot three times in the air,” he said. He was blindfolded and had his hands tied while in detention and made to sit under the air conditioning. “I was freezing all night.”
Ballal said he was assaulted by settlers when he filmed them attacking his neighbour’s house. “I went to document what was happening there.”
The film community condemned the attack on Ballal and demanded his immediate release. Front Row Filmed Entertainment also released a statement about the attack.
“We express our unwavering support for Hamdan Ballal, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham and the No Other Land team,” the distributor said, and urged the film industry to “unite in solidarity with those who dare to challenge the status quo”.
