What’s it about?

As the television series The Killing demonstrated, the Danes have nicely manoeuvred themselves into cornering the market on taunt psychological thrillers lead by a quiet, determined woman.ID:A stars Tuva Novotny as a woman who wakes up in a river in France dressed in men’s clothes with a bag full of Euros and a gun. A knock to the head has resulted in amnesia. How she has ended up in this situation is the premise of the film.

Unknown in the local French town she walks into and needing a name to register at a hotel, the injured woman calls herself Aliena. Though fluent in French, she is made aware that she does not sound French and so she discovers that she is actually Danish. She is also told that a French politician has been shot dead not far from where she woke up. Realising that she is being followed Aliena makes her way back to Denmark for answers. Finding the voice of a Danish opera singer familiar, she arrives at his concert to discover her true identity as his wife Ida. With her memory still not returned to her, she begins to become suspicious of everything and every one around her and starts to piece the events of the last few weeks together.

How’s the picture and sound?

The sound and picture quality are fine as ID:A was not made with a huge budget and fits nicely into DVD viewing.

Any extras?

No extras included on the DVD sent for review.

Summary

Director Christian E. Christiansen’s film keeps the element of being a thriller as the audience are only privy to the information that Aliena/Ida discovers as she is discovering it. Who she can trust or believe is kept ambiguous. Also what she is capable of is only slowly revealed leading one to make assumptions that add to the general air of mystery.


ID:A is at its best whenever Aliena/Ida shares the screen with her brother Martin (Carsten Bjørnlund). When the ‘baddy’ is revealed it does feel somewhat convoluted but Novotny’s portrayal of a woman attempting to find her feet is done in an internalised way that keeps the audience guessing at her true nature.

Film Rating: ★★★☆☆

When’s it out?

Monday 14th May