★★★★

How far can someone go to hide the past they worked so hard to escape? And when a person does something terrible to survive, should they be considered guilty, or should we first try to understand what pushed them to that point? May el-Toukhy’s Woman Unknown is a heartbreaking and deeply unsettling film that raises these difficult questions without providing easy answers.

Set in Copenhagen after the Second World War, the film follows Marie (Mathilde Arcel), a young woman who used to work as a housemaid and nanny for Christian, a wealthy widower who owns a glove-making factory. She cares for his daughter, Leonora, and eventually becomes engaged to him. Marie is about to receive the respectable and secure life she always wanted, but Christian does not know everything about the woman he plans to marry.

Marie is already torn apart by trauma. She experiences pain during intercourse because of vaginal scarring left by a complicated childbirth in which her baby did not survive. She takes medication to manage the pain and visits another doctor instead of her own, as though even her physical suffering is something she must hide.

But the deepest scars are the ones nobody can see. Marie is haunted by images of women being attacked in the streets for allegedly having relationships with German soldiers. Their dresses are torn, their heads are shaved, swastikas are painted on their bodies, and they are forced to walk exposed in front of everyone. It is heartbreaking and horrifying to watch.

Cutting their hair becomes almost like the scarlet letter—a public sign meant to make the women carry their shame everywhere. Those disturbing scenes appear throughout the film because Marie is terrified that the same thing will happen to her. Even though the war is over, she is still living as though someone may come for her at any moment.

Her fear grows when Karl, a man from her past, suddenly reappears. Marie agrees to have a drink with him, but it becomes clear that Karl has never let go of what happened between them. When he brings something she accidentally left behind to Christian’s home, she becomes extremely uncomfortable. His presence brings back all the painful memories she desperately wanted to escape.

Karl knows that Marie has lied about her parents being dead. But it is one particular question that changes everything: Does she really believe Christian will still marry her if he discovers what she has done? From that moment, Marie’s fear takes over. Her attempts to conceal the truth become increasingly dangerous and begin affecting the people around her.

What makes Woman Unknown so powerful is that it does not ask us to simply defend or condemn Marie. Instead, it asks us to look at how fear changes someone. Marie wants to survive and protect her new life, but how many people can she hurt before survival becomes something else? Was she part of the system, or was she simply another woman with no power who did what she had to do?

The war may be over, but society is still looking for people to punish. Accountability is necessary, but it does not appear to be applied equally. Women are publicly humiliated and made to carry the visible shame of collaboration, while men with status and influence are allowed to hide behind their positions. Christian was involved with the resistance, yet his factory also benefited from business connected to the Germans. Still, it is Marie who is terrified of being dragged into the street.

El-Toukhy’s direction creates constant tension because danger can appear through something as small as a question, an unexpected visitor, or a symbol left outside the house. When a Nazi sign scares guests away from Christian’s dinner, we understand that suspicion alone can destroy someone’s reputation.

Mathilde Arcel is extraordinary as Marie. Her fear can be seen even when she says nothing. We can feel her constantly thinking about what others know and how far she may need to go to stop the truth from coming out. She makes Marie frightening, vulnerable, heartbreaking, and human at the same time.

Woman Unknown is ultimately about a woman trying to become someone new while the past refuses to release her. It is painful to watch Marie being destroyed by memories she cannot escape. The film does not excuse her choices, but it makes us understand where they come from. And perhaps that is its most important message: before judging what someone has done, we must also ask what they had to survive.