Women of Water

dance film by Editta Braun

Women of Water

AT 2025, 9:30 min.

Premiere 28 October 2025 in Das Kino Salzburg

directing, editing, choreography: Editta Braun

constructions, special effects: Menie Weissbacher

music: Thierry Zaboitzeff

with: Weng Teng Choi-Buttinger, Nikola Majtanova, Jerca Rožnik Novak

best cat: Malou

dramaturgy: Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau

lightings: Thomas Hinterberger

tailoring: Cvetanka Mojsovska

distribution: Ulrike Hager, Antje Papke

production: editta braun company, Studio Weissbacher

funded by BMWKMD, Stadt Salzburg, Land Salzburg, Weissbacher Studio

An experimental film about showing and concealing, moving and being moved. A ballet for isolated limbs, a trio for dancers flowing, floating, swimming and gliding. Carried by Thierry Zaboitzeff's marvellous sounds and tones, breathtaking through unprecedented perspectives, the piece writes a new, purely female story of creation out of the water.

For the film project, a special platform with a transparent Plexiglas floor was constructed to provide a completely new view of the protagonists. Seen from the soles of their feet, the world is upside down. Distances appear shifted, lines of sight distorted. In the film, the close-up from the side complements the unfamiliar view from below, I can combine different perspectives and cut them against each other. The bodies are reflected on the glass floor, limbs seem to double.

Water is life. Women give life. The beginning quotes Michelangelo's story of male creation, the female body in the embryonic position reminds us that the female body gives life, the gush of water is reminiscent of the water that breaks at birth, that makes its way. Against the dark night sky, the women seem to float in space - an escape movement in times of resurgent patriarchy? In the end, they are completely with themselves, completely together, and together they form the circle of life that knows no end. A female creation myth.

Director Biography – Editta Braun

* 1958 in Austria, pioneer of contemporary choreography in Austria. Academic degree in Science of Sports and German Language and Literature (University of Salzburg). Studied dance in Paris and New York, 40 years of teaching, including at the University of Salzburg and the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz. Has created more than 30 productions (physical theater, dance) and tours worldwide with her company. Has turned towards experimental short films since 2020. Characteristics: intercultural collaborations, politically engaged, feminist and ecological view on society and arts.

Filmography

LUVOS migrations, AT 2022

LUVOS migrations, short cut, AT 2025

Women of Water, AT 2025

Women, AT 2025

Awards

1994 bronze medal at the New York Film Festival for „Collision“, category Non Broadcast Performing Arts, directed by Othmar Schmiderer

2001 prize for the best director at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre

2014+2015 Heidelberger Theaterpreis

2014 International Prize for Arts and Culture by the City of Salzburg

2017 Great Prize for Performing Arts by the Region of Salzburg

2023 Cairo Breaking Walls Festival, Special Jury Award Music

2023 FlorenceDanceOnScreen, 3rd place of Best Overall Dance Film Winners

2023 Moving Body Festival in Varna / Bulgaria, Best Visual Language Award

2024 Sittannnavasal International Film Festival / India, Best Experimental Short Film

2024 Austrian Film Festival Vienna, Best Experimental Film