Free Showing of Oscar-Winning Documentary Thursday, April 10 at 7:00 PM
Janice and Jack Lohr invite you to a free screening of No Other Land, Thursday, April 10, 7 pm at the Hawthorne Theaters.
The Oscar-winning documentary by Palestinian-Israeli team Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor was completed before the current war in Gaza began. It narrates the story of Basel, a young Palestinian activist in the West Bank, who has been fighting against the expulsion of his community in Masafer Yatta by Israeli authorities since childhood. He documents the gradual eradication of villages as soldiers deployed by the Israeli government demolish homes and expel their inhabitants. An alliance develops between Basel and an Israeli journalist Yuval, and the two become part of the team that created the documentary.
The “controversial” film and its directors have been criticized by both the Israeli government and BDS movement. It has had limited distribution in the US and has been hard to see.
This week, one of the film’s directors, Hamdan Ballal, was injured in his home village of Susya, part of Masafer Yatta. According to co-director Basel Adra, “”We came back from the Oscars and every day since there is an attack on us….”
The film is free, and any donations will go to the work of Mercy Corps in the West Bank and Gaza. This top-rated charity has been engaged in emergency relief and development support there since 1986.
Hawthorne Theaters is located at 300 Lafayette Ave., Hawthorne, NJ 07506.
A NOTE FROM JANICE & JACK: We have a dual purpose in renting the theater and bringing the film: We want to support our home-town theater in the face of economic struggles that beset movie houses today, and we want to make an important documentary available to our neighbors. We were impressed by the call of Ridgewood spiritual leaders Rabbi David Fine and Imam Mahmoud Hamza for dialogue across difference, affirming key principles of respect for human rights, sorrow for innocent people suffering, condemnation of terrorism and belief in self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians. We hope that viewers will come with open hearts and minds.”
PS: We would welcome co-sponsors.
(for more info contact jacklohr@gmail.com)
