Women in Saudi Arabia were not allowed to obtain identification documents until 2001. They could be forced into marriages until 2005. Heck, Haifaa Al-Mansour made her first film in the kingdom (2012) before women could run for office (2015) there.
None of this means that the director’s latest film, “Unidentified,” should be graded on a curve. But the film’s Saudi Arabian setting is inextricably intertwined with its content. Al-Mansour is a director who has literally done what many other artists only achieve in the figurative sense. She runs ahead of her society and places images of female empowerment there that otherwise would not exist in her culture.
Sure, that does mean Al-Mansour’s work can play like simplistic parables that preach virtues that might come across as pablum to Western audiences accustomed to a room tone of basic feminist principles. It’s difficult but doable to hold the two competing identities of “Unidentified” in one’s head. This film is revolutionary for some audiences and redundant for others.
It does not take long for the contours of this crime drama to become readily apparent. And just in case anyone misses it, wait for the first shot of Noelle Al Saffan (Mila Al Zahrani), relegated to making copies while the men in the department deliberate the finer details of a troubling case. This will be a story about a woman who can outsmart the systems that devalue her contributions.
Noelle might sound like a prototypical aspiring girlboss, but she has real depth in al-Mansour’s script (co-written with producer Brad Niemann) beyond just wanting to best the bros. This 29-year-old divorcee is a true crime aficionado with a penchant for digital literacy, two skills that serve her well in the case that soon comes to swallow her office. She’s equal parts Leslie Knope and Marge Gunderson, a winning combination of competence and charisma that makes the story’s gruesome elements a little easier to stomach.
“Unidentified” opens at the scene of the crime, where the dumping of a teenage schoolgirl’s dead body feels more like the end of the line than the start of a true investigation. While many Saudi families opt not to claim their missing daughters out of shame, Nawal refuses to let this victim become just another nameless statistic. (It’s notable that she only gets this close to the action because the officers need another woman to accompany them on-site with a female body.)
With a little help from the lessons gleaned through her favorite podcasts, this paper-pusher begins pushing more than just documents around the office. Noelle’s abounding main character syndrome leads her to think she can write the next chapter of the story with herself as the protagonist. She’s seemingly the only person around with a real motivation and drive to connect the dots.
Al-Mansour’s film works as an engaging, enraging potboiler thriller as Noelle’s uncharacteristically polite vigilantism turns over a lot of metaphorical stones that would rather remain unturned. Poking around inside the school system and trying to gain cooperation from minors is a risky bet for the self-styled sleuth. Yet it winds up unlocking some revelatory and unheard perspectives, adding supporting characters whose involvement complicates the whodunit.
“Unidentified” does focus a little too much on individuals without laddering the critique back up to patriarchal institutions. Al-Mansour lacks the grace and gravitas of other Middle Eastern filmmakers whose sociological lenses make clearer just how much oppressive ways of thinking circumscribe each character’s choices. Though Noelle’s misadventures lead her into some grim territory, there’s a certain tweeness to the character’s hard-charging attitude that always seems to soften the critique.
And then … there’s that ending. Saying much more about the nature of the film’s final twist in a journey filled with surprising turns would be equivalent to giving away the game. But “Unidentified” ranks among a rare class of movies that forces viewers to re-interpret everything they’ve just seen once the full picture locks into place. Whether that makes everything that came before worthless or worth it may be less a reaction to al-Mansour’s filmmaking and more of a reflection of the audience’s own subject position. [B-]
“Unidentified” had its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Festival and opens in theaters on Friday, June 19.
