Join us on Oct 27th at the 28th Arab Film Festival for the San Francisco Bay Area Premiere of To a Land Unknown, a film by Mahdi Fleifel. Details + Tickets.
To a Land Unknown is part of a series of films screening at AFF2024 to amplify Palestinian stories and Palestinian voices, such as our Opening Night film, Life is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza, and Palestine’s submission to the Academy Awards From Ground Zero.
Browse the full festival’s schedule, and consider buying a festival pass.
After fleeing a camp in Lebanon, two Palestinian cousins are stranded in Athens, living in an underground limbo. Desperately seeking a way to reach Germany, they find themselves caught in an uncontrollable spiral. Nourished by New York cinema (notably Midnight Cowboy), To a Land Unknown races along like an edgy thriller, tragic but stripped back. A compelling, uncompromising and nuanced look at the living conditions of migrants.
“I wanted to portray these characters as authentically as possible, accompanying them so viewers could access a world they might not otherwise know. To a Western audience, these individuals often remain mere statistics, devoid of humanity. They know nothing of their dreams, fears, or hopes.” – Mahdi Fleifel
To a Land Unknown
Directed by MAHDI FLEIFEL
Starring MAHMOOD BAKRI, ARAM SABBAGH, MOHAMMAD ALSURAFA, ANGELIKI PAPOULIA, MOUATAZ ALSHALTON, MOHAMMAD GHASSAN, MONZER REYAHNAH
Run Time: 90 minutes
Country: Greece, Palestine, Denmark, United Kingdom, Netherlands
Year: 2024
Language: Arabic, English, Greek
“As a son of Palestinian refugees who grew up in Denmark, this has been my story. Palestine is a mosaic of many stories and many situations, essentially we are a people in exile. My experience was to focus on what’s close to me, and what’s close to me is Exile. I’m grateful that I have not lived under Israeli occupation and I’ve never had to be humiliated at Israeli checkpoints on a daily basis; I do not have that experience. But I know what it means to live in exile, to be stateless, to not belong. But To A Land Unknown is not just another refugee film, or another Palestinian film with all the expected clichés… I wanted to make my own seventies Hollywood cinema.” – Mahdi Fleifel, director of To a Land Unknown
About the Director, Mahdi Fleifel
MAHDI FLEIFEL is a Palestinian-Danish director who graduated from NFTS in the UK.
In 2012, his first feature-length documentary A World Not Ours premiered at TIFF and gathered around thirty awards (Berlinale, CPH:DOX, Yamagata, DOC:NYC).
He took part in the Cinéfondation in 2013, and subsequently directed several short films: A Man Returned (Silver Bear 2016 EFA nomination), A Drowning Man (Cannes, Bafta nominated), I Signed The Petition (IDFA award and EFA nomination).
To a Land Unknown is screening on Oct. 27th in San Francisco. Details + Tickets.
Co-presented by the DC Palestinian Film & Arts Festival
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