Official Lineup
At Trianon Cinemaالى عالم مجهول
To a Land Unknown
2024
|Fiction
|105'
by Mahdi Fleifel
[UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Palestine]
Synopsis
Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.
Official Poster
Biography
Mahdi Fleifel is a Danish-Palestinian film director and a 2009 graduate of the UK National Film and Television School. In 2010 he co-founded the London-based production company Nakba FilmWorks with Irish producer Patrick Campbell.
His debut feature documentary, A World Not Ours (2012), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to win more than 30 awards (Berlinale, CPH:DOX, Yamagata, DOC:NYC).
In 2013 he took part in the Cinéfondation and subsequently directed several short films, including A Man Returned (Silver Bear, nominated for the European Film Awards), A Drowning Man (Cannes, BAFTA nomination), and I Signed the Petition (IDFA award, European Film Awards nomination).
His first fiction feature, To A Land Unknown, had its world premiere at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, Cannes Film Festival 2024, where it received rave reviews.
Mahdi currently lives between Athens and Copenhagen.
Director's photo
