At Cannes, Kristen Stewart presents The Chronology of Water, a visceral work inspired by Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir. A powerful dive into healing after abuse.
Kristen Stewart adapts a cry for survival
American actress and director Kristen Stewart unveils her first feature film, The Chronology of Water, at Cannes 2025. The film, part of the Un Certain Regard selection, is adapted from the memoir of American author Lidia Yuknavitch. It tells the story of a woman’s struggle to rebuild herself after experiencing childhood abuse. “Being a woman is a very violent experience,” Stewart tells AFP — a raw truth that runs through every frame of the film.
Kristen Stewart assembles a powerful cast around Imogen Poots. She casts Earl Cave, son of Australian singer Nick Cave, as Lidia Yuknavitch’s first husband, and Kim Gordon, icon of the rock band Sonic Youth, as a dominant lover. The cast embodies the intensity, rebellion, and desire at the heart of this electric film. “This film speaks to anyone who’s open and bleeding,” says Stewart.
Lidia Yuknavitch, a radical inspiration
Kristen Stewart discovered The Chronology of Water eight years ago and felt an urgent need to adapt it for the screen. “I had never read a book like that — it screamed to be a living thing,” she explains. In it, Yuknavitch recounts her survival, shame, and rage with brutal honesty and biting humor — and how art helped her endure. For Stewart, the book is “a real lifeboat.” She also wrote the screenplay herself.
To portray Yuknavitch on screen, Stewart chose British actress Imogen Poots. “She’s the best of our generation,” Stewart says. “She’s lush, beautiful, and opened herself up so much for this film.” As for Stewart, she never considered acting in her own movie: “I’ve been in a female body for 35 years. I don’t need to have lived exactly what she went through to know what it’s like to be silenced.”
Art as a way to heal
For Kristen Stewart, The Chronology of Water is a story about reclaiming oneself. “This film explores what art can do after people have done things to your body — rape, theft, the tearing away of desire.” She pays tribute to Lidia Yuknavitch’s TED Talk, The Beauty of Being a Misfit, in which the author insists that telling one’s story is an act of survival. Stewart adds: “Only the stories we tell ourselves keep us alive.”
The director concludes, “I’m not being dramatic, but as women, we are walking secrets.” And she leaves with a bold message: “I can’t wait to make ten more films.”