Unidentified

The latest from Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al Mansour (Wadjda) is a crime thriller that pushes against gender norms and challenges simplistic narratives of femicide. Riddled with suspense, Unidentified is a female-driven detective story that transgresses all manner of jurisdiction in its dogged pursuit of justice.

A young woman’s abandoned body is found in the desert and bears no identification. When the Riyadh authorities go to investigate, they recruit police department receptionist Nawal (Mila Alzahrani, star of Al Mansour’s The Perfect Candidate, TIFF ’19) to help the otherwise all-male team discover details only a woman would notice.

The intelligent and observant Nawal, a true-crime fan, possesses an unusual degree of knowledge when it comes to homicide investigations. While the police drag their heels, she quietly takes matters into her own hands, going to different all-girls’ high schools to ask about missing students, only to find the administrators uncooperative, wanting no part in any story about supposedly “sinful” girls. Nawal eventually finds an ally in a teenager who thinks she might know who this Jane Doe is — but do the authorities even care?

Written by Al Mansour and Brad Niemann, Unidentified confronts the failings of a patriarchal social order designed to keep women confined. As she endeavours to uncover the truth about the murdered girl, Nawal must also justify her choice to leave an unhappy marriage. Bringing her characteristic complexity and compassion to bear, Al Mansour cleverly leans into a crime genre to shine a light on universal truths.

ANITA LEE