Presented at the Cinematographers’ Fortnight in Cannes last May, the first feature film by Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel impresses as much as it upsets.
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The hall of the Parisian cinema Luminor Hôtel de Ville was too small to accommodate the entire audience who had been waiting for almost an hour. This Saturday June 9 is To a Land Unknown (Towards an unknown country), the film by Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel which is screened as part of the Palestine Film Festival. Presented at the Cinematographers’ Fortnight in Cannes, this is the filmmaker’s first feature film.
Mahdi Fleifel grew up in the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon, then in the suburbs of Elsinore in Denmark. A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield in London, he won several awards for his short film Arafat & Ias well as for his documentary A World Not Ourswhich won the Peace Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
To a Land Unknown recounts the exile of Chatila, played by Mahmood Bakri, son of a famous family of Palestinian actors, and of Reda, played by Aram Sabbagh, Palestine’s first skateboarder. The two Palestinian cousins are refugees in Athens and dream of a new life in Germany. Without papers and money, it is impossible to cross borders. They multiply schemes to acquire false passports and fly to the German capital where they want to open a café.
While waiting for the precious sesame, they must live in a squat with other refugees. Between thefts and prostitution, the two cousins have difficulty putting money aside, especially since Reda, addicted to drugs, spends it on her drinks. The unexpected meeting of a 13-year-old boy from Gaza, wishing to join an aunt living in Italy, becomes a new hope for them both.
Mahdi Fleifel brilliantly shows the shame that weighs on these refugees who only have illegality as a way out to survive. “We end up becoming attached to these men and moving beyond their bad actions to consider them as human beings.”says in English the filmmaker present at the festival for a meeting with the public.
Mahdi Fleifel made many documentaries before embarking on this first fiction. He was inspired by the stories of refugees that he heard during his years of directing but also by the poems of the famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Abou Love, one of the characters in the film, even pronounces a few verses “You have no brothers, my brother, no friends, my friend, no citadels, no water, no medicine […] In this space open to enemies and oblivion, make each barricade a country!”.
The triggers for this fiction were, for Mahdi Fleifel, the works His Majesty of the Flies by William Golding and the characters of George and Lennie in Of mice and Men by Steinbeck. Chatila is Reda’s only support who regularly gets into mischief, like George and Lennie in Steinbeck’s novel. “They only have the two of them. Reda is his cousin, his brother and even home for Chatila [qui a laissé sa femme et son fils dans un camp de réfugiés au Liban]”, says Mahdi Fleifel.
Stuck in the urban desert of Athens, we will never know if the two cousins manage to escape. A desire for the director: “these people disappear in real life. We don’t know what becomes of them. I have seen more refugees fail to leave than succeed“He explains that he wanted to transcribe the way in which exile is expressed.”Shame is a big aspect of their lives. The shame of doing what they have to do to survive. They live with this feeling all the time and at one point it explodes.”explains Mahdi Fleifel.
The filming locations in the city of Athens transcribe the characters’ loss of identity. Tagged, unsanitary streets that mingle with basement apartments. Mazes reminiscent of those in refugee camps. “I was able to see that the refugees in exile were trying to recreate the same atmosphere as that of the camps they had left.”specifies the filmmaker.
The tenth edition of the Palestine Cine Festival 2024 in Ile-de-France and Paris runs until June 16.
Gender : Fiction
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Actors: Mahmood Bakri, Aram Sabbagh, Mohammad Alsurafa, Angeliki Papoulia
Country : United Kingdom, Greece, Netherlands, France, Germany
Duration : 105 min
Exit : Shortly
Distributer : Eurozoom
Synopsis : Chatila and Reda are two Palestinian cousins who have taken refuge in Athens. Together, they multiply the schemes to gather a large sum which will allow them to acquire false passports, a gateway to Germany where they dream of finally being able to build their lives. But this quest pushes them to cross their limits, leaving behind a part of themselves in the hope of a better future.