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CODE UNKNOWN Send This Review to a Friend
Writer-director Michael Haneke is an unusual artist who doesn't worry about making his films easy for an audience to fathom. He much prefers to make an audience think, as is certainly the case with his jarring and fascinating "Code Unknown." This is a film about connections and attitudes, some of which unfold on the streets of Paris. He is most fortunate to have actress Juliette Binoche as an anchor for the action and the emotions generated.
Binoche, playing Anne, an actress, is harassed on the Metro in Paris by an Arab. A European man comes to her aid. In another scene, Maria, a Romanian woman played by Luminita Gheorghiu, begs in the streets in order to get money to send back home to her family. A young white man disdainfully tosses an empty bag at her, and this angers Amadou, a black played by Ona Lu Yenke, who criticizes the man for his contemptuous gesture, which in turn leads to a fight and police intervention.
Both incidents reveal the super-charged atmosphere with racial undertones examined by Haneke, who broadens his outlook in examining the life of Anne, who has a boyfriend, Georges, played by Thierry Neuvic, a war photographer just returned from covering the fighting in the Balkans. His younger brother Jean (Alexandre Hamidi), who harassed the Romanian woman, presents a problem for Anne.
It turns out that Amadou is a dedicated teacher who works at an institute for deaf-mute children, a profession which he follows as a result of his younger sister being deaf. Amadou is a pivotal character in this drama, which at times seems disjointed, but in the overall scheme of things, has its points of connection. At one juncture we are taken back to Romania after Maria is deported.
There is a nerve-jangling undertone to "Code Unknown," which makes it work effectively as a plea against racism and a warning of volatile attitudes that loom as an ever-present danger. A Leisure Time Features release.
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