Their quest to get out means turning to petty crime. Lifting purses and sneakers, turning the occasional trick with an older man. But it’s never enough, especially when all the other problems of poverty rear their head. Exploitation. Addiction. The nagging need to help those even less fortunate than you, like the fresh arrival Malik (Mohammad Alsurafa). The snarky, orphaned 13-year-old embodies the cycle his two new acquaintances resent: Screwed over by his human trafficker, he’s just been dumped in Greece instead of Italy, where his aunt lives. He’s got no money, no papers, no plan. But he does have his fellow Palestinians, who have all been in his shoes. He’s welcomed into their lived-in corner of the underground, into their lousy and crowded shanty where his fellows smoke and brew tea and bullshit and recite poetry. Fleifel and cinematographer Thodoros Mihopoulos shoot their hovels warmly, directly, with a few creative framing choices adding flash to the 16mm realism. The kinship emanating from the group makes it all the more affecting to see how much betrayal is required to help anyone in this place.
At the heart of To A Land Unknown lies a narrative recognizable to anyone who’s seen films about minor-league wiseguys in over their heads, or hustlers trying to get out of the projects, or any story of underclass infighting since Bicycle Thieves. With the engrossing specificity of its displaced subjects, its script rambles towards inevitable tragedy. The question isn’t if these guys will have to sell their souls to survive, but how much, if any, will be left over. Chatila, the protective schemer, is balanced by Reda, his dopey conscience, but both bow to the local crime boss who has offered to supply them fake passports. They’re also inspired by him.
As they cook up their own plots, their own ways to exploit the vulnerable people around them—whether they’re their own countrymen or locals like Tatiana (Angeliki Papoulia) loitering on the same broke corners of the city—they begin rationalizing their corruption. Chatila ignores phone calls from his wife, Bakri’s deflated swagger driving every second of the film, and Reda finds it harder to ignore the call of heroin. Squeezed in a dehumanizing vise, their options are to burst under the pressure, or operate the jaws themselves. Their grand plan goes about as badly as one could imagine—and one does imagine it, thanks to its cinematic predecessors that have similarly grappled with homelessness and desperation. But its stock ideas build upon a resonant, solid foundation; its unique tragedy adds impact to these recognizable beats, further connecting ongoing oppression to a familiar cultural context.
A weathered and beaten-down look at effects rather than causes, To A Land Unknown is in conversation with films like Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, where there are no simplistic images of victims, only people hurting and hurt by other people. In its quiet reflection on the limited choices of those backed into a corner, the drama elegantly conveys how a people’s continued persecution not only starves, shoots, and bombs individuals, but erodes the solidarity of their whole.
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Writer: Mahdi Fleifel, Fyzal Boulifa, Jason McColgan
Starring: Mahmood Bakri, Aram Sabbagh, Angeliki Papoulia, Mohammad Alsurafa, Mouataz Alshaltouh, Mohammad Ghassan, Mondher Rayahneh
Release Date: July 11, 2025
