HÄXAN

Häxan, is a film that is difficult to fit into a specific film genre. The film, in the words of its director, Danish Benjamin Christensen, is a ‘historical and cultural’ investigation into witchcraft. It is divided into seven chapters, preceded by a prologue presenting a series of documents on evil spells and magic from ancient Egypt to the Middle Ages, and a contemporary appendix, set in the 1920s, on the relationship between diabolical possession and hysteria. This cult film, which had to contend with censorship even in the years following its production, was one of the most appreciated works of the French Surrealists, in particular because of the care taken with its figurative dimension, evoking the great masters of Flemish painting such as Brueghel or Bosch.