Haifaa al-Mansour, the trailblazing Saudi Arabian director of Wadjda, Mary Shelley, and the criminally underseen The Perfect Candidate, returns with the Saudi murder mystery, Unidentified. The film debuted last year at TIFF (where I missed my screening!), and is set to hit theaters this week from Sony Pictures Classics.
The film stars Mila Al Zahrani as Noelle, a grieving 29-year-old woman looking to start her life anew in a new city following a divorce. A true-crime fan, she takes a job working for the police, and gets involved in the case of a dead woman found in the desert. She resolves to identify her and solve the case, despite warnings from others to stay out of it.
As seen in the new trailer, it’s clear that al-Mansour has found another way to strike at the patriarchy. Not only does Noelle face men of power looking to shut down the investigation, but she must face some of her own preconceived notions about women and the threats they face.
Al-Mansour directs from a script she co-wrote with Brad Newman. Also in the cast are Shafi Alharthi, Aziz Gharbawi, Othoub Sharar, Adwa Alasiri, Abdullah Alqahtani, Aouhod Aljadaan, and Somaya Alshareef.
Unidentified opens in theaters on June 19th.
