The Unknown Girl

In their early features, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne eschewed dramatic contrivance to present stark neorealist snapshots of life in the run-down Seraing region of Liége. But story has increasingly taken over from observation and this account of a doctor trying to salve her conscience after an understandable professional misjudgement often feels conventionally melodramatic. Appalled by the murder of the undocumented African migrant she refuses to see after hours, Adèle Haenel alienates intern Olivier Bonnaud and irritates cop Ben Hamidou by quizzing her patients to find clues to the dead woman's identity. Such is Haenel's crisis of conscience that she proves as "unknown" as the prostitute she failed to help. Her studied performance is as assured as the imagery, the depiction of the community and the exploration of the extent to which a single careless act can have such drastic ramifications. But, while the Dardennes cast a noir-like pall over events, the procedural aspect lacks nuance and the dénouement raises some disconcerting questions about Haenel's cosy redemption.