Directing

Mahdi Fleifel

Born

1979-10-25 (47)

Place of birth

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Known for

Directing

Credits

32 titles

Palestinian-Danish director Fleifel’s first feature-length documentary, A World Not Ours, won more than 30 awards at major festivals – including the Berlinale's Silver Bear. After taking part in the 2013 Cinéfondation in Cannes, Fleifel has directed several award-nominated short films: A Man Returned, A Drowning Man and I Signed the Petition. His debut narrative feature, TO A LAND UNKNOWN, premiered in 2024 at Cannes' Directors' Fortnight to rave reviews. It has gone on to screen at over 100 festivals and winning more than 20 awards, most recently landing Fleifel a Gotham Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Director.

Known for

To a Land Unknown poster
7.5

Cousins Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. When Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan to pose as smugglers in an attempt to get them out of their desperate situation before it is too late.

To a Land Unknown

2025

The Male Gaze: Risk Appeal poster
NR

A stranger by the lake with a valuable possession. A journey home after serving time in jail. A friendship evolving from childhood to adulthood. Discover five risky situations where men and young boys take the plunge. The 5 short films are: A King, Gazing at the Sea [Le roi qui contemplait la mer] (2022); A Drowning Man (2017); Reo (2016); Summer Friends [L'amie de l'été] (2021); Summer Memories [Souvenir d'une après-midi d'été] (2021).

The Male Gaze: Risk Appeal

2023

A Drowning Man poster
4.6

Alone and far from home, The Kid makes his way through a strange city looking for the means to get through his day. Surrounded by predators he is forced to make compromises merely to survive, his life of exile grows one day longer.

A Drowning Man

2017

A World Not Ours poster
8.0

An intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive, and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family in the lives of those for whom dispossession is the norm, and yearning their daily lives.

A World Not Ours

2014

I Signed the Petition poster
6.0

Immediately after a Palestinian man signs an online petition, he is thrown into a panic-inducing spiral of self-doubt. Over the course of a conversation with an understanding friend, he analyzes, deconstructs and interprets the meaning of his choice to publicly support the cultural boycott of Israel.

I Signed the Petition

2018

3 Logical Exits poster
2.0

A sociological meditation on the different "exits" that young Palestinians choose, in order to cope with life in the refugee camps.

3 Logical Exits

2020

Film credits

Behind the camera

To a Land Unknown poster
7.5

Cousins Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. When Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan to pose as smugglers in an attempt to get them out of their desperate situation before it is too late.

To a Land Unknown

2025

To a Land Unknown poster
7.5

Cousins Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. When Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan to pose as smugglers in an attempt to get them out of their desperate situation before it is too late.

To a Land Unknown

2025

To a Land Unknown poster
7.5

Cousins Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. When Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan to pose as smugglers in an attempt to get them out of their desperate situation before it is too late.

To a Land Unknown

2025

The Male Gaze: Risk Appeal poster
NR

A stranger by the lake with a valuable possession. A journey home after serving time in jail. A friendship evolving from childhood to adulthood. Discover five risky situations where men and young boys take the plunge. The 5 short films are: A King, Gazing at the Sea [Le roi qui contemplait la mer] (2022); A Drowning Man (2017); Reo (2016); Summer Friends [L'amie de l'été] (2021); Summer Memories [Souvenir d'une après-midi d'été] (2021).

The Male Gaze: Risk Appeal

2023

A Drowning Man poster
4.6

Alone and far from home, The Kid makes his way through a strange city looking for the means to get through his day. Surrounded by predators he is forced to make compromises merely to survive, his life of exile grows one day longer.

A Drowning Man

2017

A Drowning Man poster
4.6

Alone and far from home, The Kid makes his way through a strange city looking for the means to get through his day. Surrounded by predators he is forced to make compromises merely to survive, his life of exile grows one day longer.

A Drowning Man

2017

A Drowning Man poster
4.6

Alone and far from home, The Kid makes his way through a strange city looking for the means to get through his day. Surrounded by predators he is forced to make compromises merely to survive, his life of exile grows one day longer.

A Drowning Man

2017

A World Not Ours poster
8.0

An intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive, and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family in the lives of those for whom dispossession is the norm, and yearning their daily lives.

A World Not Ours

2014

A World Not Ours poster
8.0

An intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive, and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family in the lives of those for whom dispossession is the norm, and yearning their daily lives.

A World Not Ours

2014

A World Not Ours poster
8.0

An intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive, and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family in the lives of those for whom dispossession is the norm, and yearning their daily lives.

A World Not Ours

2014

I Signed the Petition poster
6.0

Immediately after a Palestinian man signs an online petition, he is thrown into a panic-inducing spiral of self-doubt. Over the course of a conversation with an understanding friend, he analyzes, deconstructs and interprets the meaning of his choice to publicly support the cultural boycott of Israel.

I Signed the Petition

2018

I Signed the Petition poster
6.0

Immediately after a Palestinian man signs an online petition, he is thrown into a panic-inducing spiral of self-doubt. Over the course of a conversation with an understanding friend, he analyzes, deconstructs and interprets the meaning of his choice to publicly support the cultural boycott of Israel.

I Signed the Petition

2018

I Signed the Petition poster
6.0

Immediately after a Palestinian man signs an online petition, he is thrown into a panic-inducing spiral of self-doubt. Over the course of a conversation with an understanding friend, he analyzes, deconstructs and interprets the meaning of his choice to publicly support the cultural boycott of Israel.

I Signed the Petition

2018

3 Logical Exits poster
2.0

A sociological meditation on the different "exits" that young Palestinians choose, in order to cope with life in the refugee camps.

3 Logical Exits

2020

3 Logical Exits poster
2.0

A sociological meditation on the different "exits" that young Palestinians choose, in order to cope with life in the refugee camps.

3 Logical Exits

2020

A Man Returned poster
4.8

Reda is 26 years old. His dreams of escaping the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain El-Helweh ended in failure after three years trapped in Greece. He returned with a heroin addiction to life in a camp being torn apart by internal strife and the encroachment of war from Syria. Against all odds, he decides to marry his childhood sweetheart; a love story, bittersweet as the camp itself.

A Man Returned

2016

A Man Returned poster
4.8

Reda is 26 years old. His dreams of escaping the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain El-Helweh ended in failure after three years trapped in Greece. He returned with a heroin addiction to life in a camp being torn apart by internal strife and the encroachment of war from Syria. Against all odds, he decides to marry his childhood sweetheart; a love story, bittersweet as the camp itself.

A Man Returned

2016

A Man Returned poster
4.8

Reda is 26 years old. His dreams of escaping the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain El-Helweh ended in failure after three years trapped in Greece. He returned with a heroin addiction to life in a camp being torn apart by internal strife and the encroachment of war from Syria. Against all odds, he decides to marry his childhood sweetheart; a love story, bittersweet as the camp itself.

A Man Returned

2016

Suspended Time 'Zaman Muaalaq' poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Suspended Time 'Zaman Muaalaq'

2014

20 Handshakes for Peace (Suspended Time) poster
NR

“September 13, 1993: Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Bill Clinton’s handshake on the lawn of the White House after signing the Oslo Accords. A historic moment, repeated 20 times. Tainted by countless shattered hopes and with a voice-over by intellectual Edward Said, expressing his outrage at the agreement.” – Rotterdam International Film Festival

20 Handshakes for Peace (Suspended Time)

2013

4 Weeks poster
NR

How long after a breakup can you bare to see your ex with someone new? Especially if that someone is a bald Italian.

4 Weeks

2009

4 Weeks poster
NR

How long after a breakup can you bare to see your ex with someone new? Especially if that someone is a bald Italian.

4 Weeks

2009

Xenos poster
4.6

In 2010, Abu Eyad and other young Palestinian men from the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon travelled with smugglers through Syria and Turkey into Greece. Like so many other migrants, they came looking for a way into Europe but found themselves trapped in a country undergoing economic, political, and social collapse.

Xenos

2013

Elefsina Notre Amour poster
NR

Deserted landscapes, ancient ruins and abandoned shipwrecks at sea. Elefsina’s archeological sites don’t come close to being as hauntingly beautiful as these dead ships. They stand majestically like memorial sculptures and bring a magnetism to the eye. In fact, these are the neglected refugees of Elefsina. For how did they end up there, anyway? What's their story? That's the story I want to know. Elefsina Notre Amour is a short sci-fi essay, a timeless archive, filmed on 16mm color Kodak.

Elefsina Notre Amour

2023

Arafat & I poster
NR

Short comedy about a Palestinian in love.

Arafat & I

2008

Arafat & I poster
NR

Short comedy about a Palestinian in love.

Arafat & I

2008

No artwork available
NR

A short film by Mahdi Fleifel.

The Writer

—

No artwork available
NR

A short film by Mahdi Fleifel.

The Writer

—

Kumbh poster
NR

“A dream came to me from who knows where having slept as two I awake as one / the other wasn’t there”. Two young men on a blind date start their journey outside the city. Unknowingly they become a part of maze of a pilgrimage of sadhus. They look around, they observe, they smile, they doubt, they whisper. They are lost, they are found. Two young men stroll curiously around the Kumbh Mela, a huge religious festival involving millions of Hindus. They are wearing modern clothing, which makes them stand out among the pilgrims, most of whom are in traditional dress. Kumbh Mela, which takes place every three years at one of the four major Hindu sites (Haridwar, Allahabad, Ujjain and Nasik), is seen as the biggest pilgrimage in the world, bringing the many faces of Hinduism together. There are naked sadhus smeared in ash, rich gurus collecting donations, musicians and other performers, and simple pilgrims washing away their sins by ritual bathing in the river.

Kumbh

2017