Al-Mansour's 'Unidentified' Panned as 'Misfire' by Variety
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- Haifaa al-Mansour's murder mystery 'Unidentified,' starring Mila al-Zahrani as police secretary Nawal investigating a teenage girl's death in northern Riyadh, is called 'an unfortunate misfire' that is both 'overstated and under-dramatized.'
- Nawal, a divorced woman in her late twenties and one of few female employees at her police station, pursues clues from the girl's manicure and abaya embroidery that male officers overlook, drawing resistance from affluent women and girls invested in keeping the case quiet.
- A third-act twist by al-Mansour and co-writer Brad Niemann 'renders moot the film's entire point of view, along with its central themes,' according to the review, with a 'sly reason' for Nawal's verbosity arriving too late to rescue a lurching mystery.
- Mila al-Zahrani, who also starred in al-Mansour's 2019 'The Perfect Candidate,' plays Nawal with the same surname as that film's protagonist and 'Wadjda's' young lead, linking all three films about Saudi women stepping outside prescribed roles.
- Threads left dangling include an early clash over the death penalty and Nawal's confrontation with 'unspoken social rot' in Saudi society — neither is followed up on, the review says, as the film shifts to 'trying to outsmart the viewer.'
- Supporting cast includes Shafi al-Harthi as Nawal's commanding officer Majid, who recognizes her investigative value; editors Rafael Nur and Steve Cohen handle the flashback-driven structure.
Why it matters: For al-Mansour — whose 2012 'Wadjda' made history as the first feature shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first Saudi film by a woman — this is a notable stumble for a director whose voice on Saudi women's constraints carries real industry weight. A third-act twist that the reviewer says actively 'undoes' the film's themes is a structural failure, not a minor quibble, suggesting editorial choices rather than directorial vision may be to blame for an 'interminably dull' result.
