May el-Toukhy's 'Woman Unknown' Enters Venice Competition with a Postwar Copenhagen Story
Danish director May el-Toukhy returns to the Venice Film Festival's main competition with Woman Unknown, a postwar Copenhagen drama screening at the PalaBiennale on 7 September 2026 at 17:15. The 124-minute Danish-language film is a co-production of Denmark, Sweden and Latvia, and marks el-Toukhy's third feature (La Biennale; TIFF).
The story centres on Marie, a young nanny and housemaid played by Mathilde Arcel, who is about to marry her wealthy older employer, a widowed glove-factory owner named Christian, played by Carsten Bjornlund. Marie guards a shameful secret: the film is based on accounts of public punishment inflicted on women from Nazi-occupied countries who had sexual relations with German soldiers during the war. What unfolds is a suspenseful psychological drama about a woman desperately trying to avoid mob justice (Variety; La Biennale).
The cast also includes Marina Bouras as Esther, the stony head maid, and Thorbjorn Hedegaard as Karl, an old classmate of Marie's. Jasper Spanning served as cinematographer. El-Toukhy wrote the screenplay with Maren Louise Kaehne, her collaborator from previous work (Variety).
El-Toukhy's profile gives the competition slot added weight. Her 2019 film Queen of Hearts, an incest drama that won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, was later adapted by French film-maker Catherine Breillat as Last Summer. A director whose earlier work has already crossed borders through remake brings a built-in audience to the Lido (Variety).
Sales agent TrustNordisk has described the film as a "suspenseful and sophisticated psychological drama" ahead of its market premiere (TrustNordisk). The Venice main competition — the festival's top tier, where the Golden Lion is awarded — places el-Toukhy alongside a select group of directors vying for the prize.
For audiences, Woman Unknown offers a rarely dramatised chapter of post-Second World War history: the fate of women accused of fraternisation, punished publicly in the streets of liberated cities. The film frames that history through one woman's attempt to outrun the consequences, set against the polite interiors of a Copenhagen household.
The Venice Film Festival, now in its 83rd edition, runs through 12 September. Woman Unknown screens in competition tomorrow at the PalaBiennale.
