The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. Thucydides wrote this 2500 years ago. It’s still true. Heads of state like Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu cling stubbornly to this creed and act accordingly, but if we’re being honest, they are symptoms, not causes. An insufficient faith in alternatives plagues the human species, despite the art we cherish, despite what we teach our children, despite the lofty language of our Constitutions. No Other Land was filmed before the brutal massacre of 1200 Israelis, and the kidnapping of hundreds more, by Hamas on October 7th, 2023. It was filmed before at least 70,000 Palestinians, half of them children, died at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces. It was filmed after nearly sixty years of occupation of Palestine. The killing goes on, as does the demolition of homes in both Gaza and the West Bank, the specific subject of No Other Land. Near the end of the film, Basel and Yuval wonder how to convert compassion into action. But that’s not the work of artists. That’s the work of people, or those who would become people. 10
No Other Land, directed by Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham. Yabayay Media and Antipode Films, 2023. Reviewed August 18, 2025.