Coven 2020

In 1609, deep in the Basque Country, a group of five teenagers celebrate a party in the woods and are captured as the main suspects of witchcraft. Judge Rostegui, tasked by the King to purify the region, arrests the girls and presses them to confess to witchcraft, aiming to uncover what they know about akelarre, the ceremony whispered to involve the Devil and his servants.

Despite no real evidence against them, the girls are tortured to sign a confession. After another friend is arrested, one girl, Ana, confesses to being a witch and claims she cast a spell on the others. Her plan is to gain enough time for the group to organize an escape when the village men return from fishing. The confession becomes a strategic ploy to buy breathers and space for a possible flight.

Ana’s tale describes a sabbath, a detailed festivity that appears as a twisted version of the party they previously held. This account convinces Rostegui, who postpones the execution and offers to deliver every item needed for the sabbath, which sows distrust among some of his men. An ally warns that, once the full moon passes, the village men will come back and the girls might be set free. Yet Rostegui rushes ahead, driving the plan to the woods for the ceremony in accordance with Ana’s specifications, even as doubt gnaws at his ranks.

Understanding the danger they face, Ana leads her friends in a dance demonstration, playing along as witches and singing in Basque. The performance captivates Rostegui, while the village’s priest, Father Cristóbal, is frightened by the spectacle and the fear it stirs in the crowd. The girls’ artful display is a bold act of resistance—using culture, language, and song to tilt the odds in their favor.

The pursuit resumes, a tense chase through the trees, until the girls are cornered at a cliff. As they join hands, a Basque elder’s song about the tide brought by the full moon swells through the night and fuels their resolve. With the chorus guiding them, the five leap from the edge, yielding a surprising moment for Rostegui and his men, who watch in stunned silence as the girls vanish into the darkness below.