Two new movies deal with women struggling on their own -- albeit with very different issues. The Saudi movie Unidentified focuses on Noelle, a woman who lost a child shortly after its birth, a tragedy that colors everything that follows. Made in Argentina, The Currents takes us into a middle-class milieu where a fashion designer's life seems to be coming apart at the seams. Both movies are deliberately paced, but each illuminates the life of a woman trying to cope (or not) with very different social circumstances.
Unidentified
In Unidentified, Saudi director Haifaa al-Mansour (Wadjda) follows a newly divorced woman (Mila Al-Zahrani) as she searches for the killer of a young woman who, early in the movie, turns up dead. A fan of crime podcasts, Al-Zahrani's Noelle feels wronged by her ex-husband, who -- after the loss of their child shortly after its birth -- declared his intention to take a second wife. Presenting herself as a seeker of justice, Noelle drives and owns a car, a bit of business we take for granted but couldn't have been part of a Saudi movie before 2018, the year Saudi women were first allowed to obtain driver's licenses. Defying the men who run the police station, Noelle begins to function like a detective. Her search eventually brings her into contact with the victim's mother (Fatima Alsharif), a well-heeled woman who's unwilling to identify her daughter's body lest her family be humiliated. The young woman might have been on her way to a meet a man, a taboo in this patriarchal setting. The movie plods here and there, but as a peek into the way Saudi society deals with gender, Unidentified proves eye-opening. Don't be misled, though. Al-Mansour doesn't preach; her film qualifies as a low-key thriller that includes the kind of bracing twists, you probably won't see coming.
The Currents
Alienation isn't easy to film, but director Milagros Mumenthaler brings a high-level of artistry to the task in The Currents, a movie about a fashion designer (Isabel Aime Gonzalez-Sola) who -- early on -- attempts to commit suicide in Switzerland, where she's traveled to receive an award. A wife and mother, Gonzalez-Sola's Lina returns to Argentina but can't seem to re-connect with her husband (Esteban Bigliardi) and her five-year-old daughter (Emma Fayo Duarte). Lina, who never seems present in her life, becomes the elusive centerpiece of a movie that relies heavily on Gonzalez-Sola's ability to convey the ambiguity of Lina's detachment. The Currents might have been titled Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Mumenthaler's sly splashes of color reminded me of Pedro Almodovar's work. So what's up with Lina? We don't really know, and Mumenthaler keeps it that way, avoiding a single explanation for the way in which Lina floats through her life. There's much to be gleaned from The Currents, which slowly discloses bits of backstory, including a late-picture introduction to Lina's eccentric mother. But don't expect a big reveal. Some will find Mumenthaler's slowly paced movie trying, but a character who may not fully understand her inner life is made intriguing by a director whose imagery can reflect the deep and mysterious richness of lived moments.
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