‘To a Land Unknown’ Review: A Train of Misfortune Pursues a Pair of Palestinian Refugees Seeking New Beginnings

Watermelon Pictures

According to the UN Refugee Agency, as of 2024, nearly one in every sixty-seven people on Earth has been forced to flee their homelands due to violence, persecution, or other human rights violations. While this crisis affects populations on nearly every continent, most Western observers can only comprehend the situation through the biased interpretations presented by media outlets, leaving them distantly detached from the plight of humanity despite contemporary global connectivity being higher than ever before. Through its compelling approach reminiscent of Neorealist filmmaking, To a Land Unknown, the narrative feature debut from Danish-Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel, obliterates the remoteness of the migrant crisis to bring the viewer directly into the tribulations experienced by many refugees, delivering a gritty and affecting portrait of individuals desperate to acheive the safety and possiblity we should all be entitled to in life.

The film stars Mahmood Bakri (The Teacher) and Aram Sabbah as Chatila and Reda, two Palestinian cousins who have fled a refugee camp in Lebanon to find more promising lives in Europe. Chatila moves through the world with a stony exterior and a no-nonsense attitude, while Reda embodies an empathetic softness that balances his cousin's unrelenting industriousness. The young men's shared dream of opening an Arab-friendly bakery in Germany has hit a serious roadblock, leaving them stranded in Athens until they secure forged passports that will allow them safe entry to their preferred landing place. In the Greek capital, their day-to-day lives are preoccupied with planning the rest of their voyage and collecting money however they can, even if that means stealing from shoe stores or unsuspecting tourists. Submitting to the seedy underworld of human trafficking to procure the proper documentation, the duo seeks the assistance of a shady smuggler called Marwan (Monther Rayahneh), whose fees grow higher and higher, despite his shared Palestinian heritage.

When Reda's battle with heroin addiction drives him to expend much of his and Chatila's passport fund, their hopes of making it to Germany seem more distant than ever. However, their luck seems to turn around when they meet Malik (Mohammad Alsurafa), a preteen Palestinian orphan who has been smuggled into Greece, although his intended destination is Italy, where his concerned aunt is expecting him. Always thinking about the next step in their plan, Chatila sees Malik's arrival in their lives as an opportunity to further his agenda, with him and Reda working as the "middlemen" in a plan to sneak Malik into Italy, for financial compensation, of course.

Utilizing his cunning nature and ravishing good looks, Chatila onboards Tatiana (Angeliki Papoulia, a frequent face in the works of Yorgos Lanthimos) to pose as Malik's guardian and escort him to Italy, for which Chatila and his compatriots expect to be paid by the child's relatives. As with seemingly everything else in his life, Chatila's carefully calculated plan begins to unravel from the jump, leaving him and Reda scrambling to pick up the pieces however they can if they ever want to make it out of Athens and one step closer to their visions of a stable existence.

Watermelon Pictures

From its very first frame, To a Land Unknown conveys a freneticism that only intensifies as the film becomes more entangled in the dizzying predicament of its protagonists. The authenticity of the dynamic uncertainty it taps into feels reflective of Fleifel's preceding body of work, much of which is documentary cinema that concentrates on the contemporary and historical troubles faced by the people of Palestine. The director's background in documentary film bleeds through every moment of To a Land Unknown as it utilizes real locations and the real-life struggles of those who inhabit such spaces, specifically as its characters navigate the corruption of the underground worlds they are forced to adhere to. These methods culminate in a final product that feels like a contemporary homage to Neorealist cinema, which emerged in post-war Europe during the 1940s, often centering on figures struggling to rise above troubled circumstances fueled by social, cultural, and political upheaval. In collaboration with Greek cinematographer Thodoris Mihopoulos, Fleifel crafts a grainy, tactile visual language for the movie on 16mm film, further confirming the work's grounding in reality, one that is more interested in the graffiti-covered backstreets of Athens than the ancient city’s most iconic tourist destinations.

Despite the train of misfortune that follows Chatila and Reda, To a Land Unknown never reduces their situation to that of pure tragedy. Fleifel's screenplay, co-written with Fyzal Boulifa and Jason McColgan, takes care to assemble both men with a certain depth of humanity, flawed characters who are compelled to make complicated decisions that often require them to choose between physical survival and the survival of their souls. Chatila's paternal spirit usually registers as a cruel selfishness, particularly as his decision-making negatively affects those around him (Reda most closely, but also his faraway wife and two-year-old, whom he can only contact via phone). Almost inversely, Chatila's callousness is offset by Reda's endearing disposition, which seems more negatively impacted by the constant struggle of their quandary, propelling him toward the drug use that seems so prevalent in the derelict apartment building they inhabit. Through these nuanced portrayals, both men represent figures devoid of inherent corruption who are, instead, befouled by the tribulations of their situation.

Watermelon Pictures

As To a Land Unknown hurtles towards its moving final moments, the director's vision of displaced people, those driven from their rightful homes and rejected by all others, comes to full fruition, in all its impactful brilliance. While the traditions of Palestinian cinema have always brought the injustices of its people to the silver screen, its cultural currency seems more invaluable than ever as the country continues to be debased by its colonial neighbors and oppressors. To a Land Unknown operates as an incredibly timely work, tapping into the communicative power of filmmaking to platform some of the world's most hard-hitting humanitarian crises.

4/5

UNITED KINGDOM / PALESTINE / FRANCE / GREECE / NETHERLANDS / GERMANY / QATAR / SAUDI ARABIA/ 2025/ 105MIN/ 1.85/ COLOR

‘To a Land Unknown’ world premiered in the Director's Fortnight section at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The film begins its U.S. theatrical release on July 11 in New York City and Los Angeles before expanding to other cities in the following weeks, courtesy of distributor Watermelon Pictures. Click here for more information about ‘To a Land Unknown’