''Code Unknown'' () is a 2000 film directed by

Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, Ge ...

. Most of the story occurs in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France, where the fates of several characters intersect and connect. ''Code Unknown'' is composed of unedited long takes filmed in real time, cut only when the perspective within a scene changes from one character's to another's in the middle of the action. A special edition of the film was released on Blu-ray in 2015 by

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

. The film is inspired by the life of the French novelist and war reporter

Olivier Weber Olivier Weber (born 1958) is a French writer, novelist and reporter at large, known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been a war correspondent for twenty-five years, especially in Central Asia, Africa, Middle ...

. ''Code Unknown'' is a co-production among

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Plot

The film is composed of individual stories where the lives of the characters intersect in misunderstandings and difficulties. A group of deaf children are playing a game of

charades Charades (, ). is a parlor game, parlor or party game, party word game, word guessing game. Originally, the game was a dramatic form of literary charades: a single person would act out each syllable of a word or phrase in order, followed by the wh ...

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...

. A young girl begins to act out gestures of fear as she slowly walks backwards with hunched shoulders and a side stance until she reaches a wall where she cannot escape and attempts to protect herself in a hunched position. The other children are not able to guess what is taking place. Anne (

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 60 films, particularly in French and English, and has been the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Juliette Binoche, numerous accolades, ...

) is walking down a

ian street and runs into Jean who is looking for his brother Georges (

Thierry Neuvic Thierry Neuvic (born 3 August 1970) is a French actor. He has appeared in more than 50 films and television shows since 1996. He starred in the film '' Code Unknown'', which was selected in the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Personal life He was t ...

), Anne’s boyfriend. Anne tells Jean that Georges is in

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

. Jean tells Anne that he’s left his father’s farm and asks to stay at Anne’s apartment. Jean leaves with the keys but throws the remnants of his pastry at Maria, a

n homeless woman sitting on the ground. Amadou observes this and confronts Jean, telling Jean that he must apologize to the homeless woman. An altercation ensues, police arrive, and the police arrest Amadou, release Jean, and escort Maria to the airport for

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

. At home, Amadou’s mother ( Hélène Diarra) discusses her distress with the police ransacking their home and unjustly arresting her son. After Amadou’s release, he goes on a date, but at the same restaurant Anne enters and tells her friends that Amadou is the man who attacked Jean without cause. Amadou is later seen participating in a group drumming performance as an instructor. Anne rehearses for different films. She effectively acts out scenes of terror and humor that blur the space between reality and fiction. At home, while ironing her clothes, she hears her neighbors and a young girl crying loudly in what sounds like physical beatings. When her boyfriend Georges arrives back from Kosovo, he is distraught by civilian life. In the grocery store, Anne shares the story of the screaming child in the apartment but Georges appears apathetic. He spends his days photographing people on the train and thinking about his imprisonment in the war. Anne is later seen attending the funeral of “petite Françoise,” the girl who she heard screaming in the apartment. Anne does not confront the parents. There is ambiguity as to whether this girl was the deaf girl who acted out the gestures of fear in the game of charades. Anne and Georges visit his father ( Josef Bierbichler) in the farm town. His father who lives in poverty says that his younger son Jean has disappeared, but he does not intend to search for him. In Romania, Maria has reconnected with family who are living in a run-down apartment. She shares a story of how she gave a

gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

woman some money but was worried that she may have caught a disease from her so she immediately washed her hands; but in Paris when Maria was homeless, a well-dressed man was about to hand her some money, but threw it at her after seeing how dirty her hands were. Maria eventually returns to Paris and continues to seek places to beg for money. The film ends with an untranslated sign language gesture from a different child.

Cast

- Anne Laurent *

- Georges * Josef Bierbichler - The Farmer (as Sepp Bierbichler) * Alexandre Hamidi - Jean * Maimouna Hélène Diarra - Aminate * Ona Lu Yenke - Amadou * Didier Flamand - The Director * Djibril Kouyaté - The Father * Marc Duret - The Policeman * Luminița Gheorghiu - Maria * Crenguta Hariton - Irina (as Crenguta Hariton Stoica) *

Aïssa Maïga Aïssa Maïga (born 5 May 1975) is a Senegal-born French actress, director, writer, producer, and activist. Maïga has worked with major auteurs like Michael Haneke, Abderrahmane Sissako and Michel Gondry, and recently starred in Chiwetel Ejio ...

- Black Girl with Blonde Hair

Reception

''Code Unknown'' holds a 74/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, based on 13 critics.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports 75% approval among 51 critics, with an average score of 7/10. The site's consensus reads: "Though challengingly cryptic at times, ''Code Unknown'' still manages to resonate."

Accolades

''Code Unknown'' screened in competition at the

2000 Cannes Film Festival The 53rd Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2000. French filmmaker Luc Besson was the Jury President for the main competition. Virginie Ledoyen was the mistress of ceremonies. Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier won the ''Palme d'Or'' ...

. Cinematographer Jürges was nominated for the "Golden Frog" at the Camerimage awards. The film received votes from two critics and four directors, including Ruben Östlund, in the 2012 ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...

'' polls of the world's greatest films.

References

External links

* * *
''Code Unknown: Eurovisions''
an essay by Nick James at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...