Copyright © 2009 by William R. Mistele

Undine Short Film

Photographer doing shoot on beach. Girl modeling in surf.

He pauses. Gestures for her to come sit down.

Photographer: No woman can do what you are doing. You treat the sea like it is part of your body.

Model: You said, ‘Act like you are the sea taking on the form of a woman.’ I am doing what you asked for.

Moving his hand palm down in front of his body. Spreading his fingers wide and pausing.

Photographer: (playful but serious too) You are not a human being.

Are you a human being?

Model: No.

Photographer: Are you an undine?

No one will ever learn what you tell me.

Are you an undine?

Model: Yes.

Photographer: How long have you been in possession of this body?

Model: Three years.

Photographer: What happened to the women?

Model: She tried to drown herself.

Photographer: Did she succeed?

Model: I would have rescued her but her heart was broken. I could not give her back what she had lost. Her mind was made up.

Photographer: Undines require a relationship to sustain their existence here.

Model: I have a man. He has been faithful so far.

Photographer: But he is not why you came. Why are you here?

Model: For the same reason you are talking to me—you love the beauty in life, its mysteries, and want to know more.

She leans forward toward him and looks into his eyes for a few seconds.

Model: (light, playful, laughing) Look at you. You are almost one of us.

Continuing to stare into his eyes.

Model: In your soul waves roll five thousand miles and magnetism flows between the polls.

You know the secrets of the undine queens. You know the reasons this planet exists. You have knowledge of civilizations long gone and have gazed upon the spiraling towers of civilizations in the far future.

Others notice you changing. You grow younger with the years. How may I serve you?

Photographer: Tell me of your experiences in human form and as the undine that you are.

Model: Your race is so lonely. At times, it is nearly unbearable. You have family, children, marriage, friends, love. But the barriers between your hearts remain.

You already know this. You feel what I feel.

(light, wistful)

I love the taste of cherries, chocolate, coffee, and lemonade. The tongue has cravings and needs. I will miss these things when I return to the sea.

I love the smell of the wind, the flowers blossoming, and the scent of hair and skin.

But human beings do not know how to touch, how to hold. Their desires are bound to their bodies. They do not know the desires of wind, of the sea, of the sky, the trees. The stars do not speak to them, not even in their dreams.

Your race has the power of the creator and yet you live your lives as if it is a bad dream from which you would awake if you only knew how.

Photographer: And as an undine? What are you when you dwell in the sea?

Model: I am ten thousand different sounds of waves breaking on the shores of the world. I am sounds of laughing and love making. I am joy overflowing. I am the sea’s own breath rising from the depths exhaling in a sigh and with passion as she tastes with her tongue salt and spray of waves’ crests dancing free in curling drops of rain.

I am the voice constantly speaking to everyone who draws near--I speak of love that flows without ever being lost and gives all of itself in every moment.

I sing of lovers who lives flow through each other’s without end--letting go as they walk together into the twilight and uniting again as they awake at daybreak. I am the heart in which the sun and moon dance as one.

But who listens to me? No one. Not your poets. Not your musicians. Not your artists. Not one.

(pause)

And so I have crossed over. I would share the woman that I am. Perhaps by being here others like you will discover the gifts I have to give.

Do your thing. Take pictures and write poems and teach how to contemplate these images.

Capture my beauty and share it with the world. Beauty is meant to be shared.

Photographer: I always suspected the undines would notice my work and find me models who they approve of.

But I never imagined meeting an undine in the body of a woman.

Model: Yes you have. You dream of it every day. There are many among us who are watching you and others like you. Do not think you are failing in your work.

Shall we get back to the photo shoot?

Photographer: Yes. But how do I speak to you in the future?

Model: The undine? My name is Ilessa. Speak my name when no else is near and we can speak again.

(speaking with a different voice, more human)

Model: Break over? Are you planning to shoot more?