Letter from an Unknown Woman

https://youtu.be/gw2SMVMpn9Y

This video explores Stefan Zweig’s Letter from an Unknown Woman through a bold, abstract use of red as its central motif. The color symbolizes passion, desire, and sex—an emotional backdrop for a tragic, lifelong unrequited love story in which the woman sacrifices everything while the man remains unaware. Within the narrative, hints drawn from the original text (such as white roses, a lost child, and tears) appear alongside unsettling imagery like frog legs, a baby doll, and stubborn stains. These elements together convey the intertwined themes of desire, loss, and unwavering devotion.

Visually, I use three split screens to guide the viewer’s focus and underscore the complex layers of the woman’s experience. In early frames, single screens introduce key symbols—like the white roses—while later scenes integrate all three, contrasting different angles and actions. The persistent stain, shown across two screens, embodies the lasting pain of her unspoken love, while a “greedy man” appears above it, emphasizing the dark irony at the heart of the story. Through these shifting perspectives and symbolic imagery, the video communicates both the depth of the woman’s passion and the tragic outcome of her secret devotion.