Haifaa Al Mansour’s Thriller ‘Unidentified’ Pre-Sells To Key European Territories For Rebranded Paradise City Sales

EXCLUSIVE: Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansour’s thriller Unidentified has secured distribution in a raft of territories out of the European Film Market.

Paris-based Paradise City Film, which recently rebranded from Memento International, has unveiled pre-sales to France (KMBO), Spain (Madfer Films, Alfa Pictures), Italy (Eagle Pictures), Benelux (Imagine Film), Scandinavia (Triart Film) and Greece (Cinobo).

Unidentified marks Al Mansour’s first movie in her native Saudi Arabia since the 2019 drama The Perfect Candidate and reunites her with its star Mila Al Zahrani.

The film is currently in post-production and is expected to launch as a major film festival over the summer.

The European deals follow hot-on-the heels of Sony Pictures Classics’ multi-territory acquisition of rights for North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, and worldwide airlines, announced ahead of the EFM.

Unidentified takes its cue from the discovery of the lifeless body of a teenage girl in the desert outside a small town. When no one claims the body, Noelle Al Saffan, a newly divorced, true crime aficionado who recently lost a child of her own, gets obsessively involved.

Despite a ticking clock that seemingly guarantees the girls’ senseless death will be discarded as a cold case, Noelle is determined to identify the body and uncover the truth.  She slowly unravels a mystery entangled within a traditional society in transition, where women are learning to create more space for themselves and to take control of their own destinies.

The film is a Al Mansour Establishment production in association with Rotana Studios with the support of the Daw Program, through the KSA Film Commission.

Other films on the Paradise City Sales EFM line-up included Sundance US Grand Jury Prize Winner Atropia; Sundance Midnight and Berlinale Panorama title The Ugly Stepsister; Berlinale Panorama film Dreams in Nightmares, and Berlinale Special title Ancestral Visions of the Future and upcoming Italian production Primavera.