'No Other Land' and 'The Encampments' to screen in Palestinian-themed double feature

A UNIQUE double-feature comes to town this Friday evening, as two Palestinian-themed documentaries will screen back-to-back at the AMC 11 on the Southside, with home-cooked Palestinian food as further enticement.

The Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land is set to screen first, at 7pm. This brutally real film – a Palestinian/Israeli collaboration – shows a slice of life in a Palestinian village in the West Bank as it is repeatedly attacked by Israeli soldiers and illegal Israeli settlers.

(No Other Land screened this past March courtesy of Cinema Savannah. See my review here.)

No Other Land is mostly the story of Basel Adra, a Palestinian resident of Masafer Yatta, a village constantly under threat from Israeli military attack and settler atrocities

The second feature is The Encampments, which looks at a stateside controversy. This film focuses on the various campus student protests against the Gaza genocide, including the experiences of Mahmoud Kahlil, a Syrian of Palestinian heritage and a legal resident who was detained for months by the Trump administration for his role in helping organize peaceful rallies at Columbia University in New York.

The Encampments features extensive footage from the long-running student pro-Palestinian rallies on various college campuses

The double feature is courtesy of Your Space Collective, a local organization that has been on the forefront of the Palestinian cause since its founding a little over a year ago.

Laila Abdallah, director of Your Space, is a Savannah native of Palestinian heritage.

“This is an opportunity to learn more about the Palestinian cause, especially about life under occupation. It’s an opportunity for Palestinians to tell our story, both as people living under occupation and those of us living in other parts of the world,” Abdallah tells The Savannahian.

“It’s an extension of the same story we’ve been telling for over 70 years. This isn’t the first major aggression Palestinians have been subject to,” she explains, citing the First and Second Intifadas as well as the original Nakba, the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded.

Abdallah says, “For so long we were all told this was a topic you’re just not supposed to talk about,” but also that things are slowly changing.

A younger generation sees the ongoing, almost indescribable horrors of the Israeli response to the attack of Oct. 7, 2023, livestreamed on their phones 24 hours a day for the past 21 months.

“This most recent movement includes more non-Palestinians. That’s due to social media, and due to more access for more people to real voices from the region,” Abdallah says. “We’re hoping all this will be the catalyst for full independence for the Palestinian people. This may not be the end of everything, but it could at least lift the foot off the neck of the Palestinian people. They need a reprieve.”

Abdallah says the meal of authentic Palestinian cuisine and the opportunity to meet local Palestinian people will “help people to engage with the Palestinian cause in a holistic way.”

While $15 gets you into both screenings, she says those who can't afford it can attend on a donation basis.

In the end, Abdallah says, despite the graphic horrors of the livestreamed Gaza humanitarian disaster, she has no choice but to remain optimistic.

“I still think humanity’s default is to care and to do the right thing,” she says.