Cannes Review: The Unknown Struggles with Its Own Gender Binarism

      A (lonely) man encounters a (beautiful) woman who will ultimately transform his life––a narrative as old as time itself. Changes, whether physical or psychological, are intrinsic to storytelling, even if the heteronormative nature of such an encounter might be viewed as merely anecdotal. While some may dismiss meet-cutes and typical romcom tropes, The Unknown leverages this very convention to delve into the intricate landscape of post-gender identity. Writer-director Arthur Harari, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall with Justine Triet, has demonstrated a knack for subverting genre norms.

      Given his previous works like the period war drama Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle and the revenge thriller Dark Diamond, the enigmatic premise of his third film is not unexpected. In The Unknown, an isolated, middle-aged photographer named David (Niels Schneider) encounters fate through a mysterious woman (Léa Seydoux). After she appears at a party as the subject of a candid photograph he took weeks earlier, she entices him into a basement for a silent, anonymous sexual encounter. The following scene reveals that the person who awakens in her body is David.

      Adapted from the 2024 graphic novel The David Zimmerman Case by Harari and his brother Lucas Harari, The Unknown faces the daunting task of developing an alluring body-swap theme into a captivating, well-paced film on its own merits, with casting playing a vital role. With Cannes staple Léa Seydoux starring alongside the versatile Schneider, The Unknown holds its ground, despite the unsettling undercurrents shaping its uneven narrative. In a film where characters inherently embody another's identity, Seydoux excels in a role she portrays so effortlessly that it surpasses even the paradoxical heights she achieved in Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast. Stripped of the feminine attributes defining her character there, David/Eve appears fragile and disoriented. A scene where David first confronts her naked female body is fraught with horror, yet combined with exhilaration as her hands nervously hold a mirror to her breasts, rounded stomach, and vagina—the quintessence of the uncanny (in the Freudian sense), offset by Seydoux’s minimalistic performance, which astonishingly balances the scene between fetishization and aversion.

      Although Greek mythology isn't directly mentioned in the film, it features transformation for two reasons: either as a punishment or for salvation, much like the prophet Tiresias, who was changed into a woman for striking a pair of snakes. In The Unknown, the punitive aspect of gender transition seems relevant when considering David's apparent reclusive and borderline stalker tendencies. If the consequence for his actions is to inhabit a body that isn’t his, a crucial question arises: does this film reflect body dysmorphia, or does it misinterpret trans identity, even when neither term is used in dialogue?

      Harari treads carefully around issues of trans identity, allowing no mention of it (not even from the Gen Z character played by Lilith Grasmug) until the very end, a choice that could be interpreted as anti-trans. The screenplay opts to pose more abstract questions about the implications of a body swap—or “metempsychosis,” as indicated by the overt Google-search desktop shot—in terms of privacy, boundaries, ethics, and the value of living another person’s life. However, these philosophical inquiries feel hollow when bodies, gender, and genitals are at the forefront of the conversation.

      The Unknown instead veils these pressing matters in conjecture, referring to the non-consensual body swap as simply “the disease”—or the film’s vague title—and depicting the “transmission” through a sex scene characterized by nearly mechanical qualities, where an orgasm triggers the swap. If “the disease” propagates through sexual relations that are so impersonal, mechanical, and devoid of sensuality, what are the real stakes here? Is it a critique of casual sex or puritanism? The Unknown appears to function better in this state of ambiguity—between male and female, acceptance and rejection—as a graphic novel rather than a film. While many human bodies are simplified into binaries, identities are not, and perhaps it is time for cinema to portray body-swapping as an experience of pleasure rather than punishment.

      The Unknown premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and is set to be released by NEON.