A Palestinian refugee living on the fringes of society in Athens sets in plan a high-risk smuggling plan to get him and his friend to Germany.

‘To a Land Unknown’ is a drama movie directed by Mahdi Fleifel, about two Palestinian refugees living in Athens, who are trying to make enough money to enable them to move to Germany to start a new life. Having arrived with little beyond the clothes on their back, and without papers, their options to do this are limited which leads to a life of petty crime and hustling, with spare time filled with a lot of boredom and sitting around. That boredom causes an issue when Reda (Aram Sabbah) spends all their savings on heroin, causing Chatila (Mahmood Bakri) to set up a high-risk smuggling plan that could give them the money they need in one fell swoop.

I thought this was a really good movie with a particularly compelling lead performance from Mahmood Bakri, who carries himself like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The relationship between Chatila and Reda is well depicted, showing two men who are utterly dependent on each other, even when Chatila at times perhaps wishes he wasn’t. It is directed well, with some slick camerawork and a knack for finding interesting urban environments to act as the backdrop to the story playing out in front of us. The story begins with relatively low stakes before upping them as the movie progresses, and that is important in helping us to relate to the characters before the drama becomes more fraught and tense.

‘To a Land Unknown’ is a compelling movie about the lengths people will go to when they are desperate, and how that can often manifest in negative ways within their own immigrant community. It will clearly be topical because of the nationality of the refugees and the subject matter, but this excels because it is a neorealist tale about men in an unfamiliar environment drawn to desperate acts to survive, and that specific focus makes for great cinema.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Mahdi Fleifel

Starring: Mahmood Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Angeliki Papoulia, Mohammad Alsurafa, Mouataz Alshalton, Mohammed Ghassan and Mondher Rayahneh

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt22023622/