To a Land Unknown

TO A LAND UNKNOWN by Mahdi Fleifel is a fast-paced, direct, and persistent film, drenched in tension and anticipation. Two young Palestinian men, Chatila and Reda, are forgotten by God and men in the dusty heat of Athens. In a hopeless position, torn apart existentially and emotionally, and without any possibility of a productive life, they steal, lie, and manipulate. With each futile step with which they try to justify the hopes that entire families place in them, they fall deeper and deeper into the abyss, and their big fraudulent plan, worthy of a tense thriller, becomes the moment in which they lose the last illusions of dignity and community. The narratives they use to make their actions acceptable to themselves speak volumes about their true values and what they expect, and, realistically, deserve from life as human beings. To those they left behind, mothers, wives, children... they don't tell the truth. Hope is the only currency they have, but they are running low on it, and the whole structure of the film is very much a painfully realistic downward spiral.