White Water

“White Water” is a film adaptation of the historical novel of the same name by Kateřina Tučková, one of the most successful Czech writers of the last decade. Lenka Wimmerová will be the author of the script and director of the film.

1950s. The Bílá Voda internment monastery. Four hundred nuns from different orders are brought here. In harsh conditions, without medical help and a priest, many sisters die without spiritual care. By a hunger strike they force a visit from the archbishop on their captors, but he is in the grip of the party cadres, especially the minister in power, Plojhar, who is publicly shamed by the novice Evarista with a precisely aimed quotation from the Bible. The revenge of the regime comes soon, the novices are taken to forced labour in the factories.
80s. Lena Lagner attempts suicide after her marriage fails. After her release from an insane asylum, she succumbs to alcohol and behaves promiscuously. She becomes pregnant, but is unable to care for her son. Her parents take over his upbringing and banish Lena from his life.
1950s to 1970s. Evarista rebels against the regime and in the factory and is arrested. After a harsh interrogation, she is thrown to a young man to “convert her into a civilian”. In prison, Evarista gives birth to a son, but he is taken from her and entrusted to foster care. In prison, Evarista meets nuns convicted in staged trials. Here, too, the faithful women die without the sacraments, without the possibility of salvation.
After years of imprisonment, they return to White Water, where the sisters have been assigned a priest-agent who informs on them. Evarista understands that the women must find a way to become priests themselves.
Zero years. Lena’s parents die tragically. Lena returns to Lhota to take care of her teenage son, who hates her. Lena again succumbs to alcohol. One night, her drugged son attacks her and wants to kill her, only for him to die in a tragic accident. Lena attempts suicide again. This time, the treatment of her dark soul leads her not to an asylum but to White Water, where her fate becomes linked to that of Evarista, by then excommunicated from the Catholic Church for secretly ordaining a priest.

The development of the project was supported by the Czech Film Fund.