The Unknown Woman

La sconosciuta

Summary

Irena is a Ukrainian hooker who is on the run because of her terrible secret. She finds refuge in Italy, but finds that the country is not so open to immigrants and has to do terrible things to just survive. She finds work cleaning in an apartment complex, but has to share her pay with the manger their just to stay employed. One day she befriends Gina, a nanny for one of the family that resides in the complex. Gina is crippled in an accident, which was caused by Irena, though if it was on purpose or not is not really made clear. Either way Irena fills in for Gina permanently, which leads to Irena thinking that the families’ daughter Thea, is really her daughter.

Here is where the story changes, and the viewer understand all the flashbacks that have occurred since the star of the film. Irena was a hooker who was forced to have children that were later sold on the black market. The viewer learns that Irena fell in love and got pregnant from a man whom she loved, but her pimp wouldn’t have it , and kills her lover and took the child that resulted that was a girls and sold her on the black market. Irena is told the name of the family that bought the child, but it’s later revealed that this was just a lie to keep her from asking to many question at the brothel, and thus causing trouble.

Irena later discover the body of her dead lover in garbage dump and kill her pimps or so the viewer is lead to believe but he reappears later in the film. He wants the money she stole from him, in return he won’t kill. In the end she finally kills her pimp, but also gets the adopted mother of Thea killed in the process, and she sent to jail, where she finds out that Thea is not her real daughter, but that doesn’t change that fact that she loves Thea unconditionally.

Theme

Fear is a major player in moving the film forward and making it so suspenseful. All throughout the film, Irene is worried her old life will catch up to her, and it seems it almost does, early in the film with the beating she takes with the Santas’. Loneliness also play a role, Irene loses the love of her life, and then finds him in the dump, and losing her connection to him in the form of the daughter she had taken from her by her pimp. Violence also is big, in most of the flashbacks Irene is beaten, raped, and she herself fights back killing her pimp twice, only the second was successful.

 

Reaction

This is not the first film by Giuseppe Tornatore, which I have seen, that was Cinema Paradiso. This is a completely different film, dealing with a different topic then Paradiso, was a coming of age story. This was a very engaging film to watch. Even if the subtitles weren’t on, you were still able to tell what was going on in the film because the visually storytelling was amazing. The director did a fantastic job of making the audience feel, the fear Irena felt in her everyday life, by having to look over her shoulder for the rest of her life. Also he did a fanatics job of making the audience believe she had something to live for in seeing Thea grow up even though she finds out she is not her biological mother. All in all I would love to recommend this film, to even the most causal film fan, it’s one of those films that keeps you on the edge of your seat.