Haifaa Al Mansour on UNIDENTIFIED: The Saudi Murder Mystery No One Saw Coming

Who was she?

In this episode of Inside the Arthouse, we sit down with groundbreaking Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour for a conversation about UNIDENTIFIED, a gripping mystery thriller set in modern Saudi Arabia.

The film follows Noelle Al Saffan, a recently divorced woman rebuilding her life through a clerical job at a police station. When the body of an unidentified teenage girl is discovered in the desert, Noelle is drawn into a mystery no one seems eager to solve — and a question that becomes impossible to ignore: who was she?

What begins as a murder investigation becomes a deeper story about identity, silence, gender, and power — and the hidden lives of women navigating a society in transformation.

Known for Wadjda and The Perfect Candidate, Al Mansour describes UNIDENTIFIED as the completion of her "Saudi trilogy," continuing her focus on women who step outside the roles expected of them and challenge the systems around them.

UNIDENTIFIED is distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and premiered at TIFF 2025.

Follow Inside the Arthouse wherever you get your podcasts for conversations with the filmmakers shaping world cinema.

Inside the Arthouse is hosted by Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge in partnership with Laemmle Theatres, exploring film distribution, the creative process, and the evolving landscape of cinema. Also available on YouTube.

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