TO A LAND UNKNOWN: A Pulse-Pounding Palestinian Thriller

The latest offering from Watermelon Pictures, a film production and distribution company that specializes in bringing Palestinian cinema to wider audiences, is the intense and empathetic To a Land Unknown. The narrative feature debut of Palestinian-Danish director Mahdi Fleifel, who was nominated for the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award at last year’s Gotham Awards, the film tells the story of two Palestinian migrants stranded in Athens and the desperate measures they and others like them take to survive when they have no other options. Needless to say, in a world that consistently tries to portray Palestinians as undeserving of basic human dignity and national borders as something worth spilling blood over, it is essential viewing.

Escape from Athens

Chatila (Mahmood Bakri) and Reda (Aram Sabbah) are cousins from Palestine who left a refugee camp in Lebanon to try and make their way to Europe. They hope to eventually arrive in Germany and open a small cafe where Chatila’s wife, currently still in Lebanon with their child, will do the cooking. But for the time being, the men are stuck in Athens, eking out an existence on the margins of society while struggling to raise enough money to buy fake passports so that they can finally leave Greece.

The contrast between the two cousins is obvious as soon as we meet them in the film’s opening scenes, when the two of them fake a skateboarding injury to distract a woman and steal her purse. Upon reviewing the contents, Chatila is annoyed to discover how little money is in it, while Reda is concerned that the owner will suffer without her medication. It’s clear that without Chatila’s cleverness and determination, Reda might not be able to endure such a harsh environment, yet without Reda’s sensitivity, Chatila might lose what remains of his humanity.

When Reda blows their savings on his drug addiction, Chatila concocts his most dangerous plan yet: helping smuggle a young boy from Gaza to his aunt in Italy by seducing a lonely Greek woman named Tatiana (Angeliki Papoulia) and coercing her into being the boy’s escort. Then, he comes up with an even more reckless idea: posing as smugglers and, instead of helping other migrants get out of Athens, taking them as hostages. It’s a complicated criminal enterprise that involves taking advantage of people just like himself, desperate people who have been taken advantage of time and time again just because they want a better life for themselves and their loved ones. Even if the plan works, will Chatila and Reda be able to live with what they’ve done afterward?

More Than Mere Statistics

To a Land Unknown combines a gritty, documentary-style depiction of what life is like for migrants in Europe with the propulsive energy of a crime drama; it’s impossible not to have your heart in your throat throughout. (There is also a sprinkling of dark humor that gives the audience some much-needed moments to exhale.) The film doesn’t excuse the illegal activities of its main characters, but it doesn’t judge them, either; it merely presents them to us and forces us to consider whether we would do the same if placed in such hopeless circumstances. As director Fleifel says in the press notes for the film, “I tried to put myself in their shoes. What would I do if I found myself stripped of everything: human rights, citizenship, identification papers, money, support, even dignity?… 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.”

The characters of To a Land Unknown feel all the more real in their imperfections; these are not idealized, inspirational versions of migrants but ones whose personalities bear the scars of everything they’ve been through. We see how such traumatic experiences can have different effects on people through the contrast between the hardened and cynical Chatila and the softer, more sensitive Reda; despite, or rather because of, their differences, they need each other to survive. Bakri and Sabbah do an admirable job of bringing these complex characters to life on screen; watching them together cannot help but remind one of the unlikely friendship between Joe Buck and “Ratso” Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. Papoulia (best known to international audiences for her collaborations with Yorgos Lanthimos) is also a standout as the unfortunate Tatiana, who so badly needs to be needed by someone that she allows Chatila to take advantage of her before realizing that she’s gotten far more than she bargained for. She might have a passport and a country, but she is still someone society would rather consign to the shadows to be ignored and forgotten.

Conclusion

To a Land Unknown is not an easy watch that culminates in a simple and satisfying ending; it is difficult and often despairing, and leaves the audience unsure of what the future holds for Chatila, Reda, and others like them. But one thing is for certain: stories like this must continue to be told, especially if we ever want the world to change.

To a Land Unknown opens at Quad Cinema in New York and the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles on July 11, 2025 before expanding to additional markets.