Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.
Cast:
Mahmood Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa, Αngeliki Papoulia
World premiere
56th Directors’ Fortnight – Cannes
North-American premiere
Toronto International Film Festival
Festival / Awards
Shanghai IFF 2024, Mediterrane Film Festival – Malta 2024 (Winner: Jury’s Choice Golden Bee Award), Shanghai IFF, Yerevan IFF 2024, Filmfest München 2024 (Winner: CineCoPro Award), Festival La Rochelle 2024, Whānau Mārama – New Zealand IFF 2024, Galway Film Fleadh 2024 (Winner: World Cinema Award), Taormina IFF 2024 (Winner: Audience Award), New Horizons IFF 2024, Sarajevo IFF 2024, Zanzibar IFF 2024, Hamptons International Film Festival 2024, Melbourne IFF 2024, Helsinki IFF 2024, San Sebastián IFF 2024 (Zabaltegi Tabakalera Competition), Nashville IFF 2024, Twin Cities Arab FF 2024, BFI London Film Festival 2024 (First Feature Competition), Humans of Film IFF – Amsterdam (Winner: Jury Award – Best Feature Film), Human Rights Film Festival Lugano 2024 (Winner: Audience Award / NGO Award), American Film Institute – AFI FEST 2024, Thessaloniki IFF 2024 (International Competition), etc.
International Press
“Palestinian filmmaker’s narrative debut channels the spirit of Bicycle Thieves. Mahdi Fleifel delivers a confident, fully-realized drama featuring a lead performance from Mahmood Bakri which should attract international attention for both actor and director.”
-Catherine Bray, Variety
“This Palestinian Twist on ‘Midnight Cowboy’ Is Full of Masterful Storytelling and Wrenching Humanity. To A Land Unknown is a social realist drama buoyed by two gorgeous central performances, a nuanced portrait of a mercurial male relationship told with assurance and steel. This is a tour-de-force of empathic storytelling, with its genre narrative bursting with an overabundance of humanity. Grade: A-”
-Sophie Monks Kaufman, Indiewire
“Two desperate Palestinian cousins are hopelessly stranded in Athens, Greece, in Mahdi Fleifel’s heartbreaking migrant drama. Arrestingly plotted and bracingly acted, this story about the biting hardships faced by refugees who have left the danger of their homeland only to be left nationless could hardly be more relevant. The only Palestinian feature premiering at Cannes, To A Land Unknown is crafted with painstaking care, and features two strong lead performances that are thoughtfully translated to the screen by an empathetic lens.”
-Robert Daniels, Screen Daily
“Fleifel’s artistic choices in the film, everything from cinematography, locations, sparse score, and casting, rings so true that you forget at times that you’re watching a film. The actors bring such authenticity to their roles, the screenplay is refreshingly free of any grandstanding speeches and tired statements, and the actual locations (refugee dorms and hideouts) are so immersive that it feels as though they were not even altered for the making. Grade: A- “
-Mika Takla, AwardsWatch
Indiewire’s ‘The 15 Best Movies at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival
To A Land Unknown, feature film, dcp, UK-France-Germany-the Netherlands-Greece-Qatar-Saudi Arabia-Palestine, 2024, 105′
