EXCLUSIVE: Director Haifaa Al Mansour is returning to her native Saudi Arabia for the shoot of crime function Unidentified, exploring the fact of girls amid the present interval of immense social change within the nation.
“I’m so excited to return residence to Saudi Arabia for my third movie exploring the hidden lives of Saudi girls, and to make use of the legal thriller style to discover a gripping story rooted within the deeper points that have an effect on girls within the Kingdom,” stated Al Mansour.
The film is in pre-production and on account of start capturing quickly. UTA Impartial Movie Group and Memento Worldwide are teaming as much as co-sell and can launch the venture in Cannes.
The drama is sparked by the invention of the lifeless physique of a teenage woman within the desert exterior a small city. When nobody claims the physique, Noelle Al Saffan, a newly divorced, true crime aficionado who just lately misplaced a baby of her personal, will get obsessively concerned.
Regardless of a ticking clock that seemingly ensures the ladies’ mindless dying will probably be discarded as a chilly case, Noelle is set to establish the physique and uncover the reality. She slowly unravels a thriller entangled inside a conventional society in transition, the place girls are studying to create extra space for themselves and to take management of their very own destinies.
“There are large adjustments happening contained in the Kingdom, significantly almost about girls and their working environments, so I’m excited to deliver audiences on a journey of discovery as we monitor down the clues that may reveal the reason for a younger lady’s mindless dying. I can’t wait to share this movie with the world,” stated Al Mansour.
The director made historical past in 2012 along with her debut movie Wadjda, which was the primary function to be shot totally in Saudi Arabia and the primary function made by a feminine Saudi director. Wadjda world premiered in Venice‘s Horizons sidebar and went on to characterize Saudi Arabia on the Oscars.
The movie’s high-profile competition run and international field workplace success, put Al Mansour on the worldwide cinema map, and she or he went on to direct English-speaking movies Mary Shelley, starring Elle Fanning, adopted by Nappily Ever After for Netflix.
Al Mansour returned to work in Saudi Arabia shortly after the lifting of the nation’s 35-year cinema ban on the finish of 2017, to make The Good Candidate, which premiered in Competitors in Venice in 2019 and was additionally an Oscar entry for Saudi Arabia.
The script for Unidentified is written by Al Mansour and Brad Niemann, who additionally co-wrote The Good Candidate. The pair additionally produce the brand new movie with Rotana Studios within the Center East.
“We’re tremendous excited to work with such a proficient director,” stated Memento Worldwide.
“The script of Unidentified is an actual page-turner, a suspenseful crime investigation stuffed with surprises, tackling societal matters with an entertaining method that may please audiences worldwide. This new movie will probably be one other milestone so as to add to Haifaa Al Mansour’s spectacular profession.”
Al Mansour is repped by UTA, Nameless Content material, and Paul Hastings.
