San Francisco International Film Festival 20 April - 04 May 2006

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Thirteen is the age of the bar and bat mitzvah, of confirmation, of puberty—rites that mark the end of childhood. In many tribal cultures, 13-year-olds are sent alone into the wilderness, told to return only when they have faced their demons, real or imagined. David Williams' Nina feels she must heed a similar call. It is silent and enigmatic, but also powerful, a command she cannot escape. So, soon after blowing out the 13 candles on her birthday cake, she runs away from a loving home in search of something... something too elusive to have a name—freedom, perhaps, or simply the burdens of existence itself. Williams' first film, Lillian, followed the same story from the point of view of a woman bereft of her role as mother and caretaker. Now we see the girl's side—the difficulty of separation, but also its absolute necessity. Alone on a mountaintop, Nina has a great revelation: She wants a car. It is a charmingly childish idea, but also the only possible one in a culture in which wealth and mobility are equated with spiritual fulfillment. Trained as a painter and architect, Williams filmed Thirteen himself, imbuing it with a rich, lyrical, almost painterly feel that makes it a real pleasure to watch.

Copyright © 2006 San Francisco Film Society