To a Land Unknown is an unflinching look at how survival mentality takes root in the minds and hearts of displaced peoples around the world. The perspective taken in director and co-writer Mahdi Fleifel’s gritty human drama is one of Palestinian refugees trying to slowly make their way across Europe with hopes of fulfilling dreams and attaining lifelong stability – which certainly brings a lot of timeliness – but the same set of setbacks, circumstances, frustrations, and indignities could befall anyone looking to flee death, persecution, abject poverty, or authoritarianism. The experiences and choices made in To a Land Unknown are uncomfortable to bear witness to, but Fleifel begs the viewer to never look away; to fully sit with the weight of responsibility and rootlessness that has been saddled upon its characters, who grow increasingly desperate the more pressure is placed upon them.
Cousins Chatila (Mahmoud Bakri) and Reda (Aram Sabbah) are Palestinians trying to make their way to Germany, where the former has dreams of opening a cafe and building a better life for his wife and two-year old son, both of whom are stuck in a refugee camp in Lebanon. They’re currently stuck in Athens, Greece, unable to move any further into Europe without passports. Chatila has been in touch with a smuggler (Monzer Reyahnah) who can procure them false passports, but it’s going to cost a great deal of money. Without the means to secure proper employment, the duo turn to robbery and crime to fund their escape, but the little they make from their criminal enterprises is barely enough to keep a roof over their heads, eat, and sustain the kinder, more soft spoken Reda’s on-and-off drug habit. Increasingly penned in and desperate to escape, the more cunning Chatila sees an opportunity in the form of a recently arrived thirteen year old refugee (Mohammad Alsurafa), travelling alone and who wants to reunite with his aunt in Italy. Chatila will attempt to convince a local woman (Angeliki Papoulia) to pose as the kid’s mother to cross the border and earn a large sum from the aunt upon his arrival. If they get caught, they’ll all be charged with human trafficking, but if they succeed, there should be enough money to get those fake passports.
The tactics and increasingly dangerous decisions made by the characters in To a Land Unknown are designed to make viewers ill at ease, but Fleifel ensures the audience knows where these people are coming from. Athens might not sound like the worst place in the world to be stranded, but Fleifel forces the viewer to see the city through the eyes of people who might as well be cryogenically frozen in place. Chatila and Reda have no status; no agency over their lives. There are no options for forward or upward movement or legitimate employment. There are no systems in place to help. It’s better than living under the constant threat of death, but not by much. They are in survival mode, working from a variety of trauma informed behaviours and responses, They went into fight or flight mode long ago, and those instincts will not subside anytime soon.
To a Land Unknown is steeped in the unknowable and unpredictable instability experienced by landed migrants who look for help and find none. They regret that their lives have become a process of leaving one open air prison for another only slightly nicer prison. With every setback, failure, backslide, and double cross from those who say they’re going to help, Chatila and Reda grow more discouraged, despondent, and desperate. They’re stressed out, forced to compartmentalize their deepest fears and to make a choice between disassociation and illegal activity to survive in a world where refugees who’ve been stuck in place longer than they have take a hardened approach to their fellow men and women. Everyone in this world is in it for themselves. Everyone also hopes that their last theft, crime, hustle, or bit of sex work will be their last. It’s this duality between hope and morally dubious behaviour that gives To a Land Unknown is pronounced sense of tension and despair.
The bond shared between Chatila and Reda is uniquely realized by Fleifel and co-writers Fyzal Boulifa and Jason McColgan. Chatila is the tougher of the two by far, hardened by experience and with more to lose by staying in Athens. Bakri portrays Chatila like an animal in a zoo, nervously pacing, with a perpetual look of doom and worry. His capacity for humanity has almost run dry, but Reda maintains some semblance of compassion for people in similar situations. Although he can show off a cynical side at times and his drug habit causes Chatlia several headaches, Reda is driven by a sense of duty and responsibility, even in his lowest moments. Sabbah provides the beating heart of a sometimes icy cold film, and he plays expertly against Bakri’s skittish schemer.
As their situation continues to take negative turns and the duo’s decisions become more dangerous – fully becoming the kinds of people they would hate to deal with themselves – To a Land Unknown will take viewers to a place of maximum discomfort. Fleifel, shooting on film and unafraid of long tracking shots that move at the speed of the characters, makes To a Land Unknown as intimate and claustrophobic as possible. These people can’t escape, despite best efforts, dubious tactics, and good intentions. The issue of abandoning refugees is one viewers are forced to confront head on in To a Land Unknown, and while there might be moral disagreement with the character’s actions, especially leading into Fleifel’s uncomfortable and perfectly gutting finale, there will be a sense of understanding, and hopefully, a good amount of empathy.
To a Land Unknown opens in select cities, including in Toronto at TIFF Lightbox, on Friday, July 11, 2025.
