The coven of Katarzia

As a group of women flee to freedom they are haunted by specters of their oppression.

Even Water Burns is a video that starts soft and strange, featuring women in the woods as they lie around in period dress. The mood changes swiftly as they are pursued by men, and then later by the specter of the modern world; a preacher screaming in a church as hangars rise behind him, a group of men at a board table passing judgment on women’s rights. It seems an impossibly old argument, but one that only continues to gain resonance, both in Slovakia, Poland, and internationally.

The film ends with the women in white, dancing around a fire. In the wake of the women’s strike that halted the Polish abortion ban, the film proves its import and its longevity. In order to make sure that the spot practiced what it was saying, the film was helmed by female department heads, no small feat in the imbalanced Czechoslovakian film industry. Even Water Burns was directed by Jay Walker and produced by Creative Embassy.