“It’s easier to get away with killing a woman. Sadly, society doesn’t care as much when a woman dies,” writer-director Haifaa Al-Mansour stated at a Q&A following a screening of her new film “Unidentified.” The movie, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, begins with a truck speeding away after leaving the body of a teenage girl in a school uniform on a remote desert peak.

The sand’s peach color fills the frame with a quiet solemnity. Al-Mansour’s visual approach is straightforward, effectively conveying the story. The pacing feels appropriate from the start, with the plot unfolding at a steady rate.

Al-Mansour – a prominent Saudi Arabian filmmaker – returns with the final installment of her trilogy,each featuring a protagonist named Al Safan who possesses a strong will to assert her rights as a woman in a society where doing so can be perilous.

The first film, “Wadjda” (2013), depicts a girl fighting for the right to ride a bicycle, released five years before women were allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. In “The Perfect Candidate” (2019), a young woman (Mila Al-Zahrani) runs for municipal office, a right granted to women in Saudi Arabia just four years before the film’s release. “Unidentified” features a recently divorced young woman (again Mila Al-Zahrani) who moves to the city to live alone and work as a file clerk at a police station. When a teenage Jane Doe is murdered, she feels compelled to solve the case. (The Saudi Personal Status law, enacted in 2022, expanded legal pathways for women to initiate divorce.)

Each film subtly highlights the humanity and courage of women in Saudi Arabia, showcasing real-life reforms and making them seem more common. Al-Mansour, who co-wrote the original script with her husband Brad Niemann, understands that creating complex characters navigating arduous situations is more engaging than lecturing a Western audience whose understanding of saudi culture is frequently enough limited. Western perceptions of Saudi arabia are often skewed or incomplete. As the final film in Al-Mansour’s trilogy, “Unidentified” intensifies the narrative by venturing into the murder mystery genre, allowing Saudi women to be portrayed as villains.

Mila Al-Zahrani delivers a grounded performance as the lead character Noelle, embodying her determination and relentless pursuit of the girl’s killer, always carrying her stylish black leather bag. Inspired by an influencer who combines makeup tutorials with true crime analysis, she uses gender roles to her advantage, getting closer to the women in the victim’s life than any male policeman could in this observant Muslim country.

However, the stakes could have been higher. Noelle faces little consequence each time she disobeys her father-like police sergeant, Majid (Shafi Al-Harthi, who also appeared in “Wadjda”). As she nears solving the case,intimidation by the killer surfaces too late,diminishing the viewer’s sense of danger. The film includes a surprising twist, but its emotional impact is lessened by insufficient setup.

If the film’s only achievement were to humanize and complicate flat depictions of Saudi women, that would be significant. Many different types of women surround Noelle as she tries to identify the jane Doe: rebellious teenagers, school principals, widows who value tradition, entrepreneurs, a police officer, and even the medical coroner who allows her to inspect the body for clues. This intentionality-the ability of fictional narratives to change concrete realities-creates a living, breathing empathy “machine,” to quote Roger Ebert. Al-Mansour reminds us that movies should generate empathy and shows us how.

“As women from the Middle East, we are often portrayed as victims with no agency. That’s not the full picture. Arab women have sass, hustle, and complexity,” Al-Mansour said at the post-screening Q&A.”life in the Middle East can be harsh and demoralizing, and women are a part of that reality too. But we’re not always innocent angels. We don’t always need to be the moral backbone of a society; we can be flawed, conflicted, and problematic.”

In “Unidentified,” women are good, bad, and everything in between. In a society where a woman’s death can easily go unnoticed, this film ensures the audience pays attention.

“It’s easier to get away with killing a woman. Sadly, society doesn’t care as much when a woman dies.”

Saudi Cinema and Social Change

“Unidentified” offers a glimpse into the evolving role of women in Saudi arabia, reflecting broader shifts in the country’s social and legal landscape. But how has Saudi cinema evolved, and what other factors are driving change for women in the Kingdom?