Synopsis
Irena, a Ukrainian woman, comes to Italy looking for a job as a maid. She does everything she can to become a beloved nanny for an adorable little girl, Thea. However, that is just the very beginning of her unknown journey.
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Cast
- Kseniya RappoportIrena
- Michele PlacidoMuffa
- Claudia GeriniValeria Adacher
- Pierfrancesco FavinoDonato Adacher
- Clara DossenaTea Adacher
- Alessandro HaberMatteo
- Piera Degli EspostiGina
- Pino CalabreseGIP
- Ángela MolinaLucrezia
- Paolo ElmoNello
Recommendations
- 80
Los Angeles Times
Sweet, however, are the uses of melodrama in the skilled hands of Tornatore, for he transcends the lurid and the coincidental with range, depth and insight, and a bold, confident, suspenseful style, to create a fable of love and redemption. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
Russian-born Xenia Rappoport gives it her tragic-heroine all as an abused Ukraine prostitute-turned-sneaky housemaid in Italy in The Unknown Woman. - 70
Chicago Reader
The melodrama form allows Tornatore to examine such current issues as human trafficking and black-market babies within a yarn that, for all its sentiment, is never less than gripping. - 70
Variety
Brings peaks of violence and suspense to the vivid story of a young East European prostitute-turned-cleaning lady intent on carrying out a mysterious mission in Italy. - 63
TV Guide Magazine
The film is flat-out gorgeous and contains moments of sheer lunacy. - 60
The New York Times
Ms. Rappoport’s sturdy performance helps keep this outlandish melodrama from collapsing into unintended comedy. - 58
Christian Science Monitor
Rappoport is a powerhouse performer but the movie is an unstable concoction of political melodrama, film noir, and weepie. - 50
Salon
It's an exceptionally well-made example of the kind of delirious, semi-Gothic, overcooked melodrama filmmakers from the Boot have long specialized in.
