Stranded in Athen’s seething Kypseli district, cousins Chatila and Reda pursue petty crime and sex work in an attempt to come up with cash, fake passports and a bright idea for how to continue their trip to Western Europe. In the process, they take bigger and bigger risks, until everything seems just about within reach. Alas, Reda’s drug addiction and their decision to try their hand as smugglers lead into dark territory. Both Palestine and Germany remain dreams, each in its own way. With his capable team, Mahdi Fleifel stages a compelling buddy movie about the melancholy of exile and sticking together in an unjust world. A thriller so full of authenticity it’s almost too much to bear.

Mahdi Fleifel is a Palestinian-Danish director who graduated from the National Film and Television School in the UK. In 2012, his first feature-length documentary A WORLD NOT OURS premiered at TIFF and gathered around 30 awards (Berlinale, CPH:DOX, Yamagata, DOC:NYC). Subsequently, he directed several short films. His short film I SIGNED THE PETITION also won many international awards (Silver Bear/Berlinale, Best Short Film/Visions du Réel, Nyon, Best European Short Film/Sarajevo Film Festival, Best Short Documentary/IDFA, Amsterdam).

Filmography: 2012 A WORLD NOT OURS, 2013 XENOS, 2015 20 HANDSHAKES FOR PEACE, 2016 A MAN RETURNED, 2017 A DROWNING MAN, 2018 I SIGNED THE PETITION, 2020 3 LOGICAL EXITS, 2023 ELEFSINA NOTRE AMOUR (all seven short films), 2024 TO A LAND UNKNOWN