Code Unknown

A group of deaf children play a game of charades using French sign language. A young girl acts out gestures of fear, slowly stepping backward toward a wall as she tries to protect herself. The other children struggle to guess what she is conveying, hinting at the film's theme of hidden meanings and miscommunication.

Anne walks through a Paris street and runs into Jean, who is seeking his brother Georges in Kosovo. She tells him Georges is away, and Jean asks to stay at Anne's apartment. The encounter sets in motion a web of intersecting lives.

Jean leaves with the keys but throws a pastry at Maria, a Romanian homeless woman. Amadou confronts Jean and demands an apology. A police altercation ensues, Amadou is arrested, Jean is released, and Maria is escorted to the airport for deportation.

Back at home, Amadou's mother discusses her distress with the police as they ransack the apartment and arrest her son. She laments the injustice she perceives and worries for her family. The scene highlights the tension between the characters' private struggles and state authority.

After his release, Amadou goes on a date, attempting to move past the incident. In the same restaurant, Anne informs her friends that Amadou attacked Jean without cause. The moment blends personal relationships with public suspicion and rumor.

Amadou is later seen participating in a group drumming performance as an instructor. The rhythmic gathering offers a counterpoint to the earlier conflict and shows another facet of his character. The scene emphasizes community and the healing potential of music.

Anne rehearses for different films, effectively acting out scenes of terror and humor that blur the line between reality and fiction. Her craft foregrounds the film's meditation on perception and storytelling. The practice mirrors the characters' own performances within their lives.

At home, while ironing, Anne hears her neighbors and a young girl crying loudly, sounding like physical beatings. The sound deepens the sense of danger and ambiguity surrounding the girl and whether she is the deaf child from the game. The moment expands the film's web of interwoven private traumas.

Georges arrives back from Kosovo, overwhelmed by civilian life after the war. He is haunted by memories and seems detached, spending time photographing people on the train and pondering his imprisonment. The return contrasts his internal turmoil with the external world.

In a grocery store, Anne recounts the story of the screaming child to Georges, who remains apathetic. He resists engaging with the emotional weight of the tale and instead fixates on his own preoccupations. The exchange highlights differing responses to trauma.

Georges spends days observing and photographing people on the train, haunted by his wartime imprisonment. The train's motion becomes a metaphor for his unsettled mind and the pull between memory and present life. He remains distant from the others as his thoughts linger on the past.

Anne attends the funeral of petite Françoise, the girl whose screaming she heard earlier. She does not confront the grieving parents, and the film leaves open whether this child is the deaf girl from the sign-language game. The scene adds to the film's theme of unresolved guilt and ambiguous connections.

Anne and Georges visit Georges' father in a farm town. The father, living in poverty, says that his younger son Jean has disappeared but refuses to actively search for him. The confession deepens the sense of family strain and the fragility of connection.

In Romania, Maria reconnects with family in a run-down apartment and recounts sending money to a gypsy woman, followed by worry that she might have contracted a disease. Later, back in Paris as a homeless woman, she continues to seek money on the streets, illustrating persistent hardship. The arc ties her journey across continents to the film's broader themes of survival and dignity.

The film ends with an untranslated sign-language gesture from a different child, echoing the opening game's mystery. The final moment leaves audiences with a lingering question about communication and understanding across the stories.