Athens becomes a hellish limbo for Palestinian refugees who have left the refugee camps behind in search of an ever-elusive passage into Europe for a new life. The fictional To a Land Unknown wears its origins on its sleeve with its cinema-verité shooting style, set in the world exiled Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel encountered while making his earlier documentaries in Athens

To a Land Unknown follows two cousins – Chatila (Mahmood Bakri) and Reda (skateboarder and first-time actor Aram Sabbah) – dreaming of a new life. Chatila has left his wife and son in a Lebanese refugee camp to keep his drug-addict cousin on the straight and narrow and find their next step. They've been stranded in Athens for so long that the city isn't even an attractive tourist site. They talk about seeing the acropolis everywhere, but we never actually see it. And in one scene where they overlook a fantastic vista of Athens, the backdrop of the city is completely out of focus, so we can't enjoy it either.

To survive, the pair turn to petty crime, which escalates as their desperation does, forcing them to question to what lengths they're willing to go for a better future – and whether that future is even possible. A tense and often harrowing thriller, To a Land Unknown charts how good people can do bad things in an impossible situation, which forces every man to be out for only himself.

Most recent films about Palestinian experiences tend to be about Palestinians trapped in Occupied Territories or struggling with the culture clash of Israeli life. To a Land Unknown offers a different perspective and asks, what if you escape the Middle East but are caught in limbo? What then?

Alex Heeney, Seventh Row

Director
Mahdi Fleifel

Date of Release
2024

Running time
105 min

Rating
TBC

Country of origin
Occupied Palestinian Territory · United Kingdom · Greece · Denmark · Netherlands · France · Germany · Saudi Arabia · Qatar

Language
Arabic · English · Greek (English subtitles)