Mathilde Arcel, From Unemployment Line to Volpi Cup, Eyes Europe's Top Prize

Danish actress Mathilde Arcel collected unemployment benefits two months before winning the Volpi Cup for best actress at Venice. She was on her way to a Copenhagen job centre when the call came to fly back to the Lido. Her first leading role in a feature film had just won her the festival's top acting prize.

Now she has an European Film Awards nomination too. Arcel learned Saturday in Thessaloniki that she is among six nominees for best actress, with the ceremony set for Athens in January. "I feel so lucky," she says. For the 30-year-old, whose grandmother comes from the Greek island of Lesvos, the Athens event feels like "a weird kind of homecoming."

What is 'Woman Unknown' about?

May el-Toukhy's post-World War II drama won the Golden Lion in Venice and draws on accounts of women across Europe who were publicly shamed in peacetime for relationships formed during the Nazi occupation. Arcel plays a young housemaid whose intimate relationship with a German soldier threatens her future. Variety's Beatrice Loayza praised her performance as "magnetic."

Accepting the Golden Lion, el-Toukhy admitted the film had been "incredibly challenging to make financially, logistically, emotionally," adding: "What kept me going was the urgent need to illuminate the unknown women of our common history, to make them known."

Why the story hit home for Arcel

The history is personal. "I remember my Danish grandma, when I asked about the war, she told me that she was a kid on the day of the liberation, and she remembered that all of these women, her neighbors, were suddenly being pulled out onto the street," Arcel says. "Other neighbors spitting at them, calling them names. Their hair was cut off. It really stuck with me, that this was…her most vivid memory from the occupation."

Only when researching the part did she realise "how vast this phenomenon was, all across Europe, how these women were treated."

How did an unknown land the role?

After graduating from drama school in Copenhagen, Arcel wrote to el-Toukhy — "the first person I wrote to," she notes. A casting call followed. She didn't expect to win the part, which she calls "a new kind of challenge" after a career spent mostly on stage and television, with only supporting film roles to her name.

Reading the script, she says, "It was kind of like detective work when I started working with her to see what kind of person she is and why she does what she does." She praises el-Toukhy, whose 2019 drama "Queen of Hearts" starred Trine Dyrholm, for writing female characters "that are complex in their morality" — something Arcel calls "quite rare." She describes their work as "a good team" and a "very collaborative process," with both diving into period research.

What comes next?

Arcel heads to the Marrakech Film Festival, where "Woman Unknown" screens in the Horizons section, while Denmark's Oscar submission for best international feature at the 99th Academy Awards keeps the campaign running. Scripts are pouring in. She has U.S. representation now and has cleared her calendar for six months.

"It's very different, very exciting," she says. "It feels like being on the verge of something that might happen and might not even happen. A lot of dreams and hopes. Everything is open." Laughing, she adds: "It's only downhill from here, right?"

The Thessaloniki Film Festival runs through Nov. 15, closing with el-Toukhy's Venice winner.