Mahdi Fleifel

Mahdi Fleifel is a Danish-Palestinian filmmaker whose work explores exile, identity, and lived experience under displacement. His latest feature, To a Land Unknown, premiered at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2024, earning critical acclaim, a Gotham Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Director, over 30 awards, and more than 100 festival screenings worldwide. His debut feature A World Not Ours premiered at TIFF and won 34 awards, including the Berlinale Peace Prize and Grand Jury Prizes at Yamagata and DOC:NYC. He won the Silver Bear at Berlinale for A Man Returned, whose follow-up short A Drowning Man received a BAFTA nomination, while I Signed the Petition won Best Documentary Short at IDFA. Born in Dubai, Fleifel lives and works between Denmark, the UK, and Greece. He is a graduate of the British National Film & Television School and founder of Nakba FilmWorks UK.