To a Land Unknown
UK, Palestine, France, Greece, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia 2024
Dir: Mahdi Fleifel
Cast: Mahmood Bakri, Aram Sabbagh, Angeliki Papoulia, Mohammad Alsurafa
Arabic, Greek, English /105m
Release date: 14 February 2025
The stakes couldn't be higher for displaced Palestinian refugees Chatila and Reda in this knife-edge drama. The cousins are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens, but when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan to pose as smugglers in an attempt to get them out of their desperate situation before it is too late.
Winner: Best Film, World Cinema Competition, Galway Film Fleadh
“Mahdi Fleifel delivers a confident, fully-realised drama… a film crafted with tremendous empathy”
— Variety
“An instantly engrossing piece of storytelling done to stylish standards”
— ★★★★ The Arts Desk
“Powerful - and morally brave”
— ★★★★ The Times
“A tour-de-force of empathic storytelling, with its genre narrative bursting with an overabundance of humanity”
— IndieWire
“Powerful”
— ★★★★ Observer
“A complex tale told with striking emotional depth”
— ★★★★ Little White Lies
“Strong performances and storytelling energy…a smart, well-made film”
— ★★★★ The Guardian
“Slickly shot and smartly performed”
— ★★★★ The Times
“(A) nail-biting and intense drama which sheds fascinating light on what it actually feels like to live in exile”
— ★★★★ Morning Star