The Woman They Couldn't Overlook
At Venice, one filmmaker is asking a much bigger question about who gets to be seen.
At the 83rd Venice Film Festival, May el-Toukhy arrived with Woman Unknown, a film about women whose stories have too often been buried beneath shame, judgment and history.
Yet the story surrounding the filmmaker became almost as revealing as the film itself.
May el-Toukhy is the only woman directing a fiction film solo among the 21 contenders for the Golden Lion this year. She has spoken openly about the structural barriers women filmmakers continue to face, from securing financing to simply being given the same opportunities to be seen.
My film is about the invisibility of women. It is about being objectified on one hand and on the other hand being unseen and voiceless.
History, Asked the Same Question
Her film turns that same question of visibility toward history.
Set in Denmark after the Second World War, Woman Unknown follows Marie, a young housemaid whose past relationship with a German soldier threatens the future she has built. Behind her story lies the reality of women who were publicly humiliated and stigmatised for relationships with occupying soldiers.
And that is where May el-Toukhy's story becomes particularly powerful. A filmmaker fighting for women's visibility has created a film about women history failed to see.
Decades separate the two stories, yet one question remains.
Who gets to tell the story, and who disappears when nobody chooses to listen?