To A Land Unknown, Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel’s first narrative feature, could at first be mistaken for another of the documentaries for which he is known. The film’s grittiness and uncompromising, in-your-face realism, not to mention the story’s parallels with Fleifel’s life, could so easily be reality that it takes a moment to realize it is not.
The Ottawa Art Gallery screened the film as part of the International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO) on March 15.
The film follows Chatila and Reda, two displaced Palestinian men who, like Fleifel himself, were raised in a Lebanese refugee camp. Now they find themselves in the slums of Athens with dreams of opening a café in Germany – a dream which they are intent on achieving no matter what crimes or personal indignities they must commit to do so.
This amounts to a fantastic examination of displacement and desperation that is at times intense, funny, tender and heartbreaking. To A Land Unknown sets itself apart from the sentimental, inspirational tone that films on these kinds of subjects often take by presenting complex sociopolitical issues broiling beneath the surface of a fairly straightforward crime drama.
Anchoring the film from the first frame to the last are two tour-de-force performances by Mahmood Bakri and Aram Sabbah. Although the characters they play are tried-and-true archetypes – two men with a brotherly bond in desperate circumstances, one singularly driven and ruthless, the other more empathetic and prone to screw-ups – the actors bring such a depth of empathy and humanity to the roles that they never veer into cliché.
Bakri’s Chatila has an intensity about him that never feels forced. Although he seems at first to be a cold, harsh man, unsympathetic to anyone but himself and Reda, it quickly becomes clear what has made him this way. Bakri’s physicality in this role is remarkable — his eyes always scanning and alert; his body always taut; never relaxed except to sleep.
Sabbah’s Reda is a perfect flipside to this coin. Much to Chatila’s chagrin, Reda does not quite share his single-minded drive to dedicate his waking life to escaping Athens. In fact, his drug addiction jeopardizes their plans on multiple occasions. But Reda’s boundless empathy and affability is an important counterpoint to Chatila’s ruthlessness.
Sabbah has no trouble being the film’s emotional centre – at times his utter physical deflation demonstrates just how low the pair have sunk, and at others he provides some much-needed levity, as in his sweet friendship with a younger Palestinian boy they meet on the street.
The bond between these two characters alone is worth the price of admission – it is one of the best cinematic portrayals of male friendship in recent memory, and Bakri and Sabbah’s performances will certainly be among the best of the year. Fleifel had the actors live together during the shoot, and this real-life bond is immediately evident on the screen. The strikingly lifelike intimacy and messiness of these performances immediately establishes an authentic lifelong bond and shared history without having to rely on flashbacks or expository dialogue.
Supporting these intensely realistic performances is a gritty look, which is reminiscent of high-octane crime dramas by the Safdie brothers or early Scorsese. The lens is frequently right in the faces of the actors, and it shakes and sways around as if we are running along with Chatila and Reda on their escapades. The camerawork quickly establishes a tone of tense desperation.
One of Fleifel’s most impressive formal achievements here is making Athens – a famously beautiful and historic city – look like an ugly dump. We catch fragments of beauty in wide shots, and characters reference ancient wonders just around the corner, but all we ever see are the dirty, graffiti-stained streets, boarded up businesses and trash heaps that abound in the film’s central neighbourhood. This creates a palpably claustrophobic effect, and by the end it is not just Chatila and Reda that are itching to get out of Athens.
Despite its serious themes and generally bleak narrative, To A Land Unknown is not a particularly dreary watch. Its sadness is frequently abated by fleeting moments of joy, humour and tenderness, as well as the intensity and enjoyability of its crime narrative. This is not to say that its themes of hardship and moral degradation as a result of mass displacement are hidden – they are very much on the surface. Rather, they are cleverly woven into a compelling genre film about two best friends with lofty dreams of escaping their dire situation.
Just like Chatila and Reda cannot afford to spend much of their time reflecting on the circumstances that brought them here, the film is more directly concerned with moment-to- moment struggles than with sentimentality over the tragedies of their past. Still, with the displacement of Palestinians being crucial to the incitement of the film’s narrative, every moment seems also to mourn the home that has been taken away, and the life they will never get to live.
Before the film began, The Steak, a short film by Ontario director Kiarash Dadgar was also featured.
In a single, mostly static shot, Dadgar creates a tender requiem to the victims of war. The narrative it manages to create with an unmoving camera and no dialogue is at turns beautifully empathetic, nail-bitingly intense and utterly heartbreaking. It is a bold and uncompromising work, which despite not commenting on a specific conflict, will undeniably bring a multitude of real-life situations to the mind of the viewer. Dadgar’s debut demonstrates an impressive grasp on the medium – keep an eye out for this and for whatever he does next!
To A Land Unknown and The Steak played at Ottawa Art Gallery as part of the International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO) on March 15. IFFO continues until March 23. Check out the film lineup here, and keep an eye out for future reviews from us!
