'No Other Land' wins best documentary award at Berlin Film Festival

A film on illegal Israeli settlers' violence in the occupied Palestinian territories has won the best documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival.

“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,” Basel Adra, the co-director of No Other Land, said on Saturday night.

He thanked the jury and the festival for the award and called on Germany to change its policy toward Israel and Gaza.

“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 forcibly displaced from a village in the occupied West Bank amid illegal 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 about life and struggle against Israel’s occupation and forced expulsion policies also won the Berlinale’s Panorama Audience Award.