Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning filmmaker of No Different Land, has reportedly been arrested by Israeli troopers after settlers attacked his home.
Ballal’s collaborator Yuval Abraham shared the distressing information on Twitter on Monday: “A bunch of settlers simply lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our movie No Different Land. They beat him and he has accidents in his head and abdomen, bleeding. Troopers invaded the ambulance he referred to as, and took him. No signal of him since.”
Citing 5 Jewish American activists who witnessed the assault, the Guardian reviews that Ballal was surrounded and attacked by about 15 armed settlers within the Palestinian village of Susiya within the Masafer Yatta area on Monday. Troopers ultimately intervened and arrested Ballal.
Palestinian-born Ballal co-directed No Different Land as a part of a Palestinian-Israeli collective of 4 activist-filmmakers, together with Abraham. The movie chronicles the systematic demolition of Palestinian houses within the West Financial institution over a four-year interval between 2019 and 2023, informed largely from the angle of co-director Basel Adra.
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At this month’s Academy Awards, No Different Land received Greatest Documentary Function. Whereas it obtained restricted theatrical screenings in New York and Los Angeles, it has but to safe a U.S distributor for a wider launch.