The Unknown presents a mystifying labyrinth of complex identity issues, separating the physical from the mental through body swapping.
“To show what’s disappeared” is a line from Arthur Harari’s shapeshifting, psychological new film, The Unknown where Eva (Lea Seydoux) says to David (Niels Schneider), about a series of Paris postcards from the 1920s, where the locations were rephotographed by David’s father in the 1970s, and once again in the present day. Now why would Eva be telling David this? In The Unknown, a mysterious phenomenon occurs where a certain entity swaps bodies during sexual intercourse with the other. It is certainly one of the most original and ambitious films of the competition slate for its transformative narrative and innocuous atmosphere. Harari’s expert usage of image-making and perspective brings forth a contemplative exploration on disassociation, the corporeal being, and identity.
The dizzying plot of The Unknown drifts oneself from an ontological perspective, shifting between the body and mind through a formal exercise of image and seeing. From the very first image of first-person point-of-view driving down the road to take photographs, Harari’s strategic use of perspectives, camera movements, and facial images set the visual language, examining the mutating narrative of David’s mystery. After a sudden sexual encounter with Eva, the switch occurs upon awakening, leaving Eva (now David) disheveled and confused. Now searching for his original body, Eva finds David only to discover that he has switched once again, only to another person, Malia. David’s corporeal palimpsest becomes a meditation on oneself, disassociating identity with the body.
Harari’s use of family relationships intricately lays the foundation and current state of the characters. David’s introverted and misguided self begins to make sense of some sort of psychological trauma due to his parents where his father passed away from suicide, and his mother, who seems to only speak when he needs something. Introducing Malia into David’s body, a young Romanian woman with a supportive family (an excellent performance by Radu Jude playing against typecast as the loving, supportive father) with aspirations, becomes a clever juxtaposition to David, deciphering how one’s identity is tied to its memory and beliefs, rather than the appearance. As we follow the two’s journey to investigate the start of it all, the Kafkaesque journey reveals metaphysical issues at hand, commentating on society’s ongoing mental instability, identity issues, and gender dysphoria. It’s no surprise the narrative trajectory of Malia’s idealistic family beliefs becomes her downfall, whereas David’s becomes a loss of self.
With many different uses of objects, gazes, and photographs to evoke memories, Harari’s direction precisely understands what the image can behold. Most notably, images are used throughout several instances for narrative and memory devices. In one case, an ancient flip cell phone pixelated image is used to find David after the body switch, and in the other, a developed photo of Eva, as seen by David via Eva’s body becomes a self-reflexive disassociation with oneself. With each developing first-person view, reverse shot, and zoom degrading the image, The Unknown disembodies identity and the body to piece it back together through memory and realization.
Our team is on site for the 79th Cannes Film Festival, from May 12 to 23, 2026.
