May el-Toukhy’s ‘Woman Unknown’ Wins Venice Film Festival Golden Lion

Egyptian-Danish director May el-Toukhy has won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, the festival’s top prize, for ‘Woman Unknown’.

The Danish-made drama was the only feature directed by a woman in competition. It follows a woman attempting to conceal a wartime relationship with a Nazi during the German occupation of Denmark.

“‘Woman Unknown’ is about the female body as a battleground and a public matter,” el-Toukhy said while accepting the award. “And at the same time, the film tells the tale of women who are invisible, unseen and voiceless.”

The win came after jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal drew attention to the limited number of films by women in competition, describing it as “a systemic problem.”

‘Woman Unknown’ also earned Mathilde Arcel the Best Actress award for her first film role.

Elsewhere, South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong won the Silver Lion for ‘Possible Love’, while Ilya Khrzhanovsky took Best Director for ‘DAU’, his long-running project centred on Soviet physicist Lev Landau.

John Malkovich won Best Actor for ‘Wild Horse Nine’, in which he plays a CIA agent in a story set around Easter Island in Chile in 1973.