Film on Palestinians’ sufferings wins best documentary award at Berlin Film Festival
BERLIN (AA) – A film on Israeli settlers’ violence in the occupied Palestinian territories has won the best documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival.
Basel Adra, the co-director of No Other Land, thanked the jury and the festival for the award and called on Germany to change its policy toward Israel and Gaza.
“I’m here celebrating the award, but also (it’s) very hard for me to celebrate when there are tens of thousands of my people being slaughtered, massacred by Israel in Gaza,” he said on Saturday night.
“I ask one thing from Germany, as I am in Berlin here, to respect the UN calls and stop sending weapons to Israel,” Adra said, receiving loud applause from the audience in the Berlinale Palast.
The documentary film, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, shows how Palestinians were displaced from a village in the West Bank amid Israeli settlers’ violence and Israeli army raids.
The film shows how a young Palestinian activist, Basel Adra, documents the gradual demolition of the villages in his home region by Israeli soldiers. At some point, he meets Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, who supports him in his efforts.
The documentary film also won the Berlinale’s Panorama Audience Award.