Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Haifaa Al Mansour’s ‘Unidentified’

Zac Ntim

6 February 2025 at 10:30 am·2-min read

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired Unidentified, Haifaa Al Mansour’s latest, in North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, and for worldwide airlines.

Directed by Al Mansour and written and produced by Al Mansour and Brad Niemann, the film is described as a “contemporary Saudi-language thriller” and is currently in post-production.

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The synopsis reads: In Unidentified, the drama is sparked by the discovery of the lifeless body of a teenage girl in the desert. 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 girl’s 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.

“I am so excited to reteam with Sony Pictures Classics for the release of my latest film Unidentified,” Al Mansour said. “SPC championed my very first film Wadjda, about a young girl who wanted to ride a forbidden bicycle, before cinema was even legal in the Kingdom. I couldn’t be happier to be working with them again to tell another female-driven story at an equally exciting time of fundamental change in Saudi Arabia.”

The film stars Mila Al Zahrani and Shafi Al Harthi and is an Al Mansour Establishment production, in association with Rotana Studios with the support of the Daw Program, through the KSA Film Commission.

The deal was negotiated between Sony Pictures Classics, with UTA Independent Film Group and Memento International representing the filmmakers.

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