Wikipedia

The Unknown Woman

This article is about the 2006 Italian film. For other uses, seeUnknown Woman (disambiguation).

The Unknown Woman(Italian:La sconosciuta,lit. 'The unknown';also known asThe Other Woman) is a 2006 Italianpsychological thrillermystery film,directed byGiuseppe Tornatorethat depicts a woman alone in a foreign country, haunted by a horrible past. Although it was selected as the Italian entry forBest Foreign Language Filmat the80th Academy Awardsand made the shortlist, ultimately it was not nominated.

The Unknown Woman
Film poster
ItalianLa sconosciuta
Directed byGiuseppe Tornatore
Written byGiuseppe Tornatore
Massimo De Rita[it]
Produced byLaura Fattori
Franco Committeri
StarringKseniya Rappoport
CinematographyFabio Zamarion[it]
Music byEnnio Morricone
Production
companies
Medusa Film[it]
Marigolda Film
Distributed byMedusa Film
Release dates
  • 19 October 2006(2006-10-19)(Rome Film Festival)
  • 20 October 2006(2006-10-20)(Italy)
Running time
118 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian
Box office$6,850,853[1]

Plot

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Irena, a Ukrainian prostitute on the run, is determined to find a job in an elegant apartment building innorthern Italy,and starts by cleaning the stairs. She does it in order to inch her way into working for a family residing in that building. She befriends Gina, the nanny of the family's child, Thea, who lives with the family in their apartment. When the nanny is crippled in a fall—tripped by Irena, but presumed to be accidental—Irena is hired to take her place.[2]Through flashbacks, viewers learn that Irena has been physically and emotionally abused, and forced to bear nine children, all taken away at birth to be sold to adoptive families. After stabbing her pimp and leaving him for dead, she sets out to find her youngest child, whom she believes is Thea; hence the plot to work for them. Adoption documents in the apartment convince her that Thea is indeed her daughter. The mother grows suspicious of Irena and fires her, despite the loving relationship that has grown up between Irena and the child. Irena's pimp stalks her and sends out thugs to beat her up as she walks down the street. He rigs her employer's car, leading to a crash in which Thea's mother is killed. The pimp forces Irena to drive him to a location that may or may not contain the money Irena stole from him when she left him for dead. During a struggle, he falls and is killed when his head hits a rock. Thea's father moves to a new apartment and prepares a room for Irena, but as the police suspect foul play in the death of Thea's mother, Irena is taken into custody. She reveals both that the true culprit is the pimp and that she killed him. She is tried, convicted, and sent to jail. Thea stops eating until the judge allows Irena to visit her in the hospital and feed her.DNA testingreveals that Thea is not Irena's daughter after all. After she gets out of jail, she finds Thea, now a young lady, waiting for her.

Cast

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Reception

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Critical response

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The Unknown Womanhas an approval rating of 67% onreview aggregatorwebsiteRotten Tomatoes,based on 39 reviews, and an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus states: "If it's occasionally manipulative, this Italian melodrama mixes thriller conventions with a poignant love story and keeps the tension rolling from start to finish".[3]Metacriticassigned the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[4]

Awards and nominations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^"The Unknown Woman (2008) - Box Office Mojo".Archived fromthe originalon 2019-03-30.Retrieved2020-02-19.
  2. ^"פסטיבל - עמוד בית".Archived fromthe originalon 2009-07-10.Retrieved2008-07-15.
  3. ^"The Unknown Woman".Rotten Tomatoes.
  4. ^"The Unknown Woman".Metacritic.
  5. ^"29th Moscow International Film Festival (2007)".MIFF.Archived fromthe originalon 2013-04-21.Retrieved2013-05-30.
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