Woman Unknown – first-look review

After a war comes a reckoning. The survivors will sweep the streets and bury the dead – and then start to point fingers. In the wake of World War Two, many societies that had suffered under Nazi occupation were rightfully angry towards those they saw as sympathisers and collaborators. They were quick to dole out what they believed to be apt punishment for colluding with the enemy, notably for women determined to have had relationships with German men – often regardless of evidence or circumstance. Mal el-Toukhy’s third feature film, co-written with Maren Louise Käehne, focuses on a woman desperate to keep such a story from jeopardising her hard-won happiness.

Marie (Mathilde Arcel) is set to wed wealthy widower Christian (Carsten Bjørnlund) after several years as his daughter Leonora’s nanny following the passing of her mother. It’s a love match, or at least appears that way at first; she brings him his morning coffee even though they have a healthy number of staff, and continues to wear her uniform around the house despite their approaching nuptials. Yet there are hints Marie may just be a convenient replacement for Christian’s dead wife; he has insisted on having her wedding dress tailored to fit the next Mrs. Lund, and his blanket ban on photographs or mentions of her read as erasure rather than an attempt to make his bride more comfortable. 

‘At the same time a complication from Marie’s past arises; a former schoolmate, Karl (Thorbjørn Hedegaard), runs into her on the tram, and despite her clear discomfort, insists on taking her for a drink. When he eventually realises Marie is getting married, his mood sours, and he tacitly threatens to tell people that she had a baby with a German soldier during the war. Such a revelation would ruin Marie’s life; she knows what the Danish Resistance does to women accused of such a thing. 

There’s an austerity to el-Toukhy’s film that reflects her protagonist’s growing unease; she keeps the camera at a distance, often framing Marie within the dark, angular confines of the splendid home she’s about to become the lady of. Occasional flashbacks to wartime serve to emphasise the trauma Marie can’t process for her own safety, while the red clothing she favours stands out against the muted palette like a scarlet letter. Arcel gives an excellent performance, presenting a woman who has learned to swallow down her pain and sadness in the name of self-preservation, but struggles under that enormous weight as she realises her own safety comes at the price of others’.

The long shadow of war painted in Woman Unknown reflects the timeliness of the subject matter, and the uncomfortable truth that the difference between victim and perpetrator is often not as clear as it appears. el-Toukhy and Käehne’s sharp writing underpins a strong, pointed narrative, proving there is still rich storytelling potential within the saturated field of films about the Second World War.