To a Land Unknown

To A Land Unknown

TIFF65: Greek Premiere
Stranded in Athens, two cousins from Palestine, Chatila and Reda, are desperately seeking a way to escape uncertainty and squalor. Chatila dreams of making it to Germany and opening a small café, while Reda, sunk deep in his addiction, makes their path to a better life more difficult. Their petty scams soon turn into dangerous schemes, severely testing their moral boundaries. Mahdi Fleifel, with a firm directorial eye, builds a story of painful realism, with his characters moving between hope and despair. Maintaining a deeply humanist approach, the film speaks of the human need for dignity and living space beyond facile clichés. With a thriller-like tension and a compassionate truth that echoes the language of a soothing neorealism, this is a deeply touching film. In their journey through a daily life marked by their refugee status, its heroes emerge not just as victims of their fate, but as living people struggling against an implacable reality, claiming their existence in a world that seems to have no place for them.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Mahdi Fleifel
Script: Mahdi Fleifel, Fyzal Boulifa, Jason McColgan
Cinematography: Thodoris Mihopoulos
Editing: Halim Sabbagh
Sound: Steve Bond, Martin Hernandez
Music: Nadah El Shazly
Actors: Mahmood Bakri, Aram Sabbagh, Angeliki Papoulia, Mohammad Alsurafa, Mouataz Alshalton, Mohammad Ghassan, Monzer Reyahnah
Production: Inside Out Films, Nakba Filmworks
Producers: Geoff Arbourne, Mahdi Fleifel
Co-production: Salaud Morisset, Salaud Morisset Deutschland, Homemade Films, Studio Ruba
Co-producers: François Morisset, Maria Drandaki, Layla Meijman, Maarten van der Ven
Costumes: Konstantina Mardiki
Production Design: Ioanna Soulele
Executive producer: Elisa Van Waeyenberge, François De Villers, Frank Barat, Sawsan Asfari
Format: DCP
Color: Color
Production Country: UK, Palestine, France, Greece, The Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
Production Year: 2024
Duration: 106'
Contact: Salaud Morisset
Awards/Distinctions: Best Film (World Cinema Competition) – Galway FF 2024, CineCoPro Award – Munich FF 2024, Audience Award – Taormina IFF 2024

Mahdi Fleifel

Mahdi Fleifel is a Danish-Palestinian film director who graduated in 2009 from the UK National Film & TV School. In 2010 he set up the London-based production company Nakba FilmWorks with Irish producer Patrick Campbell. His debut feature documentary, A World Not Ours (2012), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and picked up over 30 awards, including the Peace Film Prize and the Panorama Audience Award at the 2013 Berlinale and the Edinburgh, Yamagata and DOC:NYC Grand Jury Prizes. Mahdi’s 2016 short film, A Man Returned, won the Silver Bear and the European Film Nomination at the Berlinale and his latest film, A Drowning Man, formed part of the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2017 and was nominated for a BAFTA award. His fiction feature film debut, a co-production of UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece (Homemade Films), Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Palestine, To A Land Unknown had its world premiere at the 2024 Quinzaine des Cinéastes in Cannes to rave reviews and is currently screening in festivals and theatres around the world.

Filmography

2012 A World Not Ours (doc)
2013 Xenos (short)
2015 20 Handshakes for Peace (short)
2016 A Man Returned (short)
2017 A Drowning Man (short)
2018 I Signed The Petition (short)
2020 3 Logical Exits (short)
2023 Elefsina Notre Amour (short)
2024 To a Land Unknown