A Palestinian-Israeli collective made one of 2024's most lauded docs. Will it be released in the US?

NEW YORK (AP) — Basel Adra, a Palestinian, and Yuval Abraham, an Israeli, spent five years making a movie that depicts daily life in Adra’s village under Israeli occupation. The resulting film, “No Other Land,” has been hailed as one of the year's most powerful documentaries, winning prizes at international film festivals.

It’s also stoked controversy, prompted death threats for its makers and — despite the acclaim — remains without an American distributor.

Opening this week in France and next week in the United Kingdom, the feature-length documentary has already sold in many international territories. Its status as an Academy Awards contender remains intact — after hosting it during the New York Film Festival, the Lincoln Center will screen the film for a one-week, Oscar-qualifying run beginning Friday. But the filmmakers believe the monthslong inability to find a U.S. distributor boils down to political reasons, with Election Day in the presidential contest between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump looming.

“Maybe they’re afraid to be defunded if Trump wins,” says Abraham, speaking in an interview from Paris alongside Adra. “But Basel risked his life for years since he was a young boy to film this material. That requires a lot of courage. Can we not have one distributor with the courage, OK, to take a certain risk, but to distribute such an acclaimed and such an important documentary?”