A GIRL I KNEW

Writer & Director

After World War II, a Jewish-American boy pursues a mysterious girl from Europe.

World War II has ended. Somewhere in the United States, teenage poet C.K. Williams falls for an aristocratic refugee from Prussia. His hunger for her body is met with her desire to tell the story of her dangerous journey to America. Listening to her tales will buy him permission to touch her - until her mother puts an end to his visits.

Inspired by a true episode in poet C.K. Williams' adolescence, this piece combines his memories of an immigrant girl he desired with the girl's memories of their journey fleeing from Prussia. Juxtaposing her innocence with her mother's antisemitism, which C.K. encounters but in his youth can't detect as such, the older man's poem COMBAT, that is the basis for this film, reminds us of the scope of guilt found amongst Germans, disguised by their own traumatic experiences.

Dialogue in German & English with English subtitles.

Experimental, 8 mins. | in post-production | segments featured in THE COLOR OF TIME

Using Format