A story of women and war:
Ava and The American
Rhode Island International Film Festival: 2023 Screenplay Competition Finalist
(winner announced Nov 2023)
It’s the end of World War II. Ava’s a young, German actress detained with Nazi secretaries, housewives, and sadistic concentration camp guards as the Allies prepare cases for the Nuremberg trials. The women pass the time in captivity playing cards and spinning gossip. Many don’t believe the war is really over. Ava falls in love with the Black-American Captain in charge of questioning them, and when she overhears a plot to kill him, she sets out to stop it.
“People are forgetting the lessons of the Holocaust, and we’re plagued with misinformation, making my screwball romp through war, racism, and greed more relevant than I’d like.
Told with love and humor, Ava and the American is about the end of World War II and an homage to war satires like Seven Beauties, Mash, and Dr. Strangelove.
I was inspired by this article in a 1940’s Life Magazine.”
–Maddy Lederman, writer, Ava and The American
