Women in Venice. The Golden Lion goes to “Woman Unknown”, the Coppa Volpi to Mathilde Arcel

Women, women, and more women. Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal was uncompromising and consistent. At a Venice Film Festival with few female directors, the Golden Lion went to the only film in competition directed by a woman. "Woman Unknown" is directed by May el-Toukhy, a Danish director of Egyptian origin. It tells the story of a maid who is about to marry her employer – in 1945, that was the terminology used. But her less-than-exemplary past comes to light. Set in Denmark at a time when women who had relationships with the Germans had a swastika painted on their backs in red paint, the film’s scarcity of female characters worthy of awards meant that its actress—the deeply moved and surprised Mathilde Arcel—won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. Feminine, it should be noted: this is not the Berlinale or other “woke” festivals where no distinctions are made.

The other Coppa Volpi was won by the great John Malkovich: a thoroughly deserved win, but given the current climate and the announcement by director Alberto Barbera – “it will be a political Festival” – we suspect that his persona played in his favour. A former CIA agent with Alzheimer’s, who spills the beans on the secrets of the trade and recounts having witnessed the assassination of JFK ‘from the other side’. The geopolitical theme continues with Un bon petit soldat, directed by the Frenchman Stéphane Brizé. The ‘labour and exploitation’ theme at film festivals is right up his street. Here he casts Alba Rohrwacher as the lead actress, and the film wins an award for best screenplay. The Silver Lion for Best Director goes to “Dau” by Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Twenty years of work to tell the story of a brilliant Greek physicist in the USSR. In a secret, heavily guarded research laboratory, he is forced to work on an atomic bomb project for 40 years.

The Jury’s Special Prize, as was to be expected, went to “Naza”. Interviews with military personnel, who remain anonymous, recount the dirty work – war always is – involved in flushing out Hamas soldiers and their supporters in Gaza. The directors – both Israeli – are Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. He grabs the microphone to denounce “the dehumanisation of Palestinians”. She does not say a single word.