Holy Water is about what we sacrifice in the search for something real. Through Javi’s story, we explore an experience familiar to many young queer people: the longing to be desired, and the difficulty of distinguishing that desire from care.

Like a lullaby, Javi surrenders without the trust that would make him safe. He retreats into his underwater refuge, where water becomes both an escape from reality and an expression of the intimacy he longs for.

I wanted the film’s languid, sensual imagery to draw us into Javi’s fantasy, while making us increasingly uneasy as its cost becomes clear. That tension asks us to examine what we overlook when something feels beautiful—and how pain can become an accepted price of queer belonging.

Javi’s homecoming is an act of defiance. He returns without a revelation that resolves everything. Instead, he turns toward the love that can anchor him and remind him of his worth beyond another person’s desire.

With Holy Water, I hope to encourage honest conversations about queer intimacy that leaves room for pleasure, vulnerability, and contradiction. I want to question the hurt we have learned to accept without losing sight of the longing that makes us reach for one another.