Oscar Wilde said that the truth is rarely pure, and never simple. People have a way of bending the truth to serve their own needs, and indeed – those needs aren’t always simple.

The latest film by Haifaa Al Mansour illustrates all of this in stunning and deeply satisfying manner.

UNIDENTIFIED is the story of Nawal (Mila Alzahrani) – a divorced woman restarting her life after her infant child died, and working as a hired hand in the police department digitizing case files. This is when a case comes in about an unidentified teenage girl left for dead out in the desert, and Nawal is brought on to the case as a fresh pair of eyes.

While motive is everything when it comes to a murder case, this killing comes with more baggage. Why has no one reported the girl missing? Why has no one come to claim her body?

Nawal sets out to find the truth – and maybe in so doing, the truth behind the truth.

Watching Nawal investigate this case, we look at the world as she does. We see details that the men who usually look into such matters might miss – like the tailoring of a school uniform, = knowing where a girl might get such things done and why. These details coupled with Nawal’s enjoyment of a true crime podcast that doubles as makeup tutorials give her an unexpected advantage.

It steers her both towards who this unidentified girl is and also who might – or might not – be looking for her.

When it comes to UNIDENTIFIED, Oscar Wilde is half right; The truth isn’t pure, but it is very simple.

There are only a handful of reasons why people do what they do, and that is very much the case in this film. The key is being able to spot the simplicity when it’s surrounded by so much complexity.

After all, as the saying goes – things can often hide in plain sight.