Mai Al-Toukhi, one of only two women competing at the Venice Film Festival this year, took the unusual step of stopping the screening of her film competing for the Golden Lion at its world premiere on Sunday evening after a translation glitch.
The director was seen leaving the show to the sound of the phone ringing. Then loud noises were heard in the hall outside the hall, causing loud shouts from some nearby spectators.
After about five minutes, the lights were turned off and Al-Toukhi returned to the room with the film’s producer, Mikael Reck, who told the audience that the film would be replayed for 15 minutes so that it could be enjoyed and understood in the right way.
A handful of spectators left but most stayed. By the end of the show, Al-Toukhi was smiling, and she and her team were clearly moved by the standing ovation that lasted seven and a half minutes.
The film’s press agent confirmed to Deadline after the screening that Al-Toukhi and her producer demanded that the subtitles be reorganized and the screening start again from where they started out of sync.
This powerful psychological drama directed by Al-Toukhi is set in Denmark in the summer of 1945, and takes its inspiration from the treatment of women suspected of fraternizing with German soldiers during the occupation of Denmark in World War II.
Mathilde Arcel plays governess and housemaid Marie, whose impending marriage to her wealthy, older employer and widow (Karsten Bjornlund) is threatened when a painful secret from the past comes back to haunt her.
Arcel, Mai El-Toukhi, Carsten Bjornlund and Marina Borras attend the world premiere of Woman Unknown
Earlier in the evening, Al-Toukhi appeared on the red carpet in a dazzling white dress, with a red embroidered detail on the back symbolizing blood.
There was a surprise last July when Al-Toukhi was the only woman announced to participate in the main competition in Venice, alongside 19 men. She has since been joined by Rachel Szur, co-director with Yuval Abraham who joined recently I did well.
Speaking to Deadline ahead of the world premiere, she said that while she was happy and “honoured” to be in the competition, the lack of other women in the running for the Golden Lion this year has affected her ever since.
“This tells us that there is still a lot of work to do,” she added. “I think it’s very much a structural problem, and I personally have a lot of experience with it. I’ve been the only woman in many, many places.”
“We’re all part of this structure, and that’s what’s been on my mind ever since how serious this problem is and how structural it is. It’s as old as cinema, even older than that. And of course, my film also talks about some of these things, like the disappearance of women, in a historical context.”
