May el-Toukhy’s post-World War II drama “Woman, Unknown” premiered Sunday in the main competition of the Venice Film Festival, arriving as the only woman-directed film among the 20 titles vying for the Golden Lion. The Danish-Egyptian director’s selection has become a flashpoint for a festival already under fire over its treatment of female filmmakers.
The film stars Mathilde Arcel as Marie, a young housekeeper preparing to marry the wealthy widower she serves, only to have a wartime relationship with a German soldier resurface over the three days leading up to her engagement dinner. El-Toukhy co-wrote the script with longtime collaborator Maren Louise Käehne, with whom she made 2019’s “Queen of Hearts,” a Sundance audience-award winner later remade in France as “Last Summer.” Carsten Bjørnlund co-stars. Nordisk Film produced the picture, a Denmark-Sweden-Latvia co-production shot in Riga, Gothenburg and Copenhagen, with TrustNordisk handling international sales ahead of a Danish theatrical release set for February.
El-Toukhy has described the film as an examination of how society polices women’s bodies and pasts regardless of era, and of the toll that keeping a hidden shame exacts over time. That theme has taken on added weight given the numbers surrounding this year’s lineup: last year’s competition featured six female directors, and Venice’s female representation across the main slate has now dropped to its lowest point in years, according to trade reports.
Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal raised the disparity directly at the festival’s opening press conference, calling it evidence of a systemic problem and questioning whether stories that interest women get labeled art on the same terms as stories that interest men.
She sat alongside artistic director Alberto Barbera, who maintained the lineup had been assembled without prejudice and that submissions from women this year did not meet the competition’s bar. His comments in July drew a public rebuke from Italian industry and advocacy groups. The eleventh-hour addition of “Naza,” co-directed by Oscar winner Rachel Szor, eased the imbalance only slightly.
Despite the controversy surrounding its context, “Woman, Unknown” carries real awards momentum of its own, with a competition slot at October’s BFI London Film Festival already secured.
