Roman Polanski’s rape scandal follows the point of view of a 13-year-old victim | Roman Polanski

A new film explores the notorious Roman Polanski rape scandal from the perspective of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer.

The Girl, based on Geimer’s 2013 memoir The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski, will trace her time in the famed director’s orbit in the 1970s, her experience of being sexually assaulted and the media turmoil that followed after Polanski, then 43, was arrested in 1977 on charges of statutory rape, lewdness and lewdness with a child.

Polanski, the acclaimed director of films such as Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown, admitted to rape in a plea deal to avoid more serious charges, but fled to France the following year after spending 42 days in prison. He has been on the run from the United States ever since.

The new film will be the feature-length writing and directing debut of French-American director Marina Ziolkowski, whose short film 19 was nominated for a César Award – the French Oscars – in 2021. Dre Hemingway, from Sean Baker’s Starlet, and The Substance’s Gore Abrams will play Jimmer’s parents Susan and Bob, while the 13-year-old Ukrainian-American newcomer will star in the title role. Carolyn Cashin. Producers said Cashin, whose theatrical credits include Annie and Matilda, was chosen from among hundreds of young actors after “an amazing audition that indicates outstanding talent,” according to Deadline.

According to the film’s opening line, “The film revisits one of Hollywood’s worst scandals through the eyes of the person who was most twisted by it… As the case explodes across the news headlines, Samantha and her mother are exposed to a relentless media storm—hounded by paparazzi and stripped of her privacy at the moment she needs protection. Together, mother and daughter must fight to regain Samantha’s voice and preserve what remains of her childhood.”

Geimer, who has since forgiven Polanski and remains in regular contact with him, said in a statement: “This story has been a lifelong burden for all of us. I never imagined it could be turned into something beautiful. Marina’s creativity and sensitivity made it possible — and that, to me, is a gift.”

While reading Geimer’s memoir, Ziolkowski was struck by her “voice — clear and courageous, so long erased from the public narrative,” the director said in a statement. “This film isn’t about Roman Polanski, it’s about bringing Samantha’s story back to her years after it was shaped by others. Told entirely through Samantha’s memories and inner life, the film reclaims her strength and complexity. Intimate and immersive, ‘Girl’ is a deeply human act of reclamation — confronting how power, myth, and the media’s distortions have erased a child’s truth, and honors her resilience.”

The project, one of the rare European productions to receive a US tax credit, will begin filming in Los Angeles later this year.

Separately from Geimer, four other women came forward between 2017 and 2019 accusing Polanski of abusing them in the 1970s — three of them minors, including artist Marian Barnard, who said Polanski sexually assaulted her when she was 10 years old. In 2010, British actress Charlotte Lewis accused Polanski of sexually assaulting her in 1983 when she was sixteen years old.

Polanski, now 92, has denied all the accusations. In May 2024, a French court acquitted Polanski of defaming Lewis after he denied raping her when she was a teenager. In October of that year, another lawsuit relating to the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old in 1973 was dismissed, after a settlement was reached “by the mutual consent of both parties”.