''The Unknown Girl'' () is a 2016

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film directed by the

Dardenne brothers Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne (; born 21 April 1951) and Luc Dardenne (born 10 March 1954), collectively referred to as the Dardenne brothers, are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce, and direct their films together. The Dardennes b ...

, and starring

Adèle Haenel Adèle Haenel (; born 11 February 1989) is a French actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two César Awards from seven nominations and one Lumières Award from two nominations. Haenel began her career as a child actres ...

Jérémie Renier (; born 6 January 1981) is a Belgian actor. His film debut was in the critically praised (1996), directed by the Dardenne brothers. He became better known to worldwide audiences in ''Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (2001) and (2005). The latter ...

, and Louka Minnella. ''The Unknown Girl'' was selected to compete for the ''

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

'' at the

2016 Cannes Film Festival The 69th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2016. Australian director George Miller was the President of the Jury for the main competition. French actor Laurent Lafitte was the host for the opening and closing ceremonies. On 15 Marc ...

. The film was released in Belgium on 5 October 2016 by Cinéart and in France on 12 October 2016 by Diaphana.

Plot

Jenny Davin, a hard-working young

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

doctor, is wrapping up her days at a small free clinic in

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

, having accepted a new job at a larger practice. She is exhausted after a long day of seeing patients and dealing with her petulant intern, Julien. When the buzzer rings after hours, Jenny instructs Julien to ignore it. The next day, Jenny is devastated to hear that the person who rang the buzzer the previous night, a young African woman, was found dead by the river, her skull fractured. Surveillance footage shows the young woman running away from someone and banging on the clinic door in desperation. Guilt-ridden, Jenny is determined to find out who the unknown girl was.

Cast

Production

In April 2015,

joined the cast of the film, with the

, Luc and Jean-Pierre, directing from a screenplay they wrote. ''The Unknown Girl'' is produced through the directors' Belgian company Les Films du Fleuve in collaboration with the French company Archipel 35. Filming began in October 2015 and ended on 22 December.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on 18 May 2016.

Sundance Selects IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its Sun ...

had previously acquired U.S distribution rights to the film. Mixed critical response to the film led to the Dardenne brothers making extensive cuts after Cannes, shortening the film by seven minutes than the original cut premiered at the festival. Luc Dardenne stated that "There are several critics who are also friends who liked it a lot but thought there were certain places in the film that didn’t work very well. I believe it was that which prompted our concern. We were ready to make changes." The new cut was officially shown in June at the

Institut Lumière The Institut Lumière (; "Lumière Institute") is a French organisation, based in Lyon, for the promotion and preservation of aspects of French film making. The Institut Lumière is a museum that honours the contribution to filmmaking by Auguste ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, France. The film was screened at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

, and the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...

on 12 October 2016. The film was released in Belgium on 5 October 2016 and in France on 12 October 2016. In the United Kingdom, the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

broadcast was on 30 March 2019.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a 70% approval rating based on 80 reviews, with an average score of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''The Unknown Girl'' isn't quite up to the standards of the Dardenne brothers' best work, but remains a well-acted effort that pays poignant – albeit limited – dividends." At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film received a score of 65 out of 100 based on 21 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

Publicity page
at the production company's website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Unknown Girl, The 2016 films 2016 drama films 2016 independent films 2010s French-language films 2010s mystery drama films Belgian independent films Belgian mystery drama films Films directed by the Dardenne brothers Films set in Belgium France 2 Cinéma films French independent films French mystery drama films French-language Belgian films 2010s French films