To a Land Unknown

Most praise must ... go to the two actors, who invite great empathy for characters too often forced into desperate decisions. This is an uncomfortable film, but one that sweeps you along in its momentum.


The hard-scrabble gutter existence is vividly captured by a restless, questioning camera, but we learn the most from Bakri’s superb performance, as he wrestles with guilt over what he has become.

It’s slickly shot and smartly performed, with Bakri especially holding strong self-tortured focus throughout.

To a Land Unknown is bitterly unsentimental, but it has a dark streak of humour, and real tenderness too — above all in its depiction of the relationship between Chatila and Reda... which carries distinct echoes of Midnight Cowboy.

The film is at its most compelling when it confronts the need for survival; when it lays bare the complex set of circumstances that lead migrants to turn on one another.

To a Land Unknown is a rare example of slick stylistics seamlessly combined with verisimilitude.

Fleifel makes his feature debut with a festival favourite that builds to an excruciating, if dour, crescendo of stakes. Underlying the piano-wire tension is a sorry fable about displacement and trauma that is all too relevant to these times.

...an instantly engrossing piece of storytelling done to stylish standards.

Director Mahdi Fleifel finds a warm tone, even as the film never flinches from the darker angles of the story. This is a complex exploration of what someone is willing to do when they are desperate for a sense of security.

Mahdi Fleifel’s compelling and resonant To a Land Unknown is an aching study of what actions displaced people are forced to turn to when presented with sparse alternatives.