On Oct.10, as rain spattered heavily against the cobblestone of Wenceslas Square, Serani Hunyi confidently fronted the group of women marching through the wind.
“The rain never stopped abusers before,” Hunyi said, raising her cardboard sign high. “It won’t stop us.”
The women stood together in their bandanas and leather jackets, mimicking the styles of a dystopian society. They bolstered signs covered in phrases like “Stop violence against women,” and “Our Voices are Loud.”
Together, they walked the square, passing out pamphlets and chanting the message that they gathered here to spread: “2040 is too late!”
The 2040 Women’s Protest March was orchestrated by Hunyi and her crew. The women here all united under the same cause: reformation for women’s rights before it’s too late.
Hunyi is the executive producer and director of Calibration, a futuristic film in development and the original inspiration for the protest.
The film follows Freya Hollister, an autistic quantitative systems analyst living in Prague in 2040. The plot shows her journey after an incredibly traumatic incident and depicts how much she is willing to do to rid herself of her pain.
Although the story follows fictional characters in a fictional world, Hunyi largely took inspiration from her own experiences and other women’s shared realities to bring the screenplay to life.
“I want people to walk away from this film and really think about what manipulation does to people, what coercion does to people, and how it can destroy people’s lives,” she said.
Hunyi’s personal experience made her particularly aware of how often women end up in situations where they are treated unfairly, abused and manipulated.
Her trauma is a driving factor for her art which she makes clear with Calibration.
“We now have a feature film screenplay, we’re fully cast and we’re almost fully crewed,” Hunyi said when asked about the progress of the movie.
Beyond the film’s literal message, the production of the movie also depicts a strong feminist stance.
Hunyi ensured that the production would be done by an entirely female crew. She always dreamed of working with a women only crew and she was determined to make her dream a reality.
“I think that women work very differently together with no men around. You don’t need to prove yourself to anybody because you’re just there doing your job,” she explained.
Although there are men cast in the movie itself, all of the behind the scenes work is done by women. This is yet another depiction of the female empowerment that Hunyi wants to make clear.
As the movie began to take shape, Hunyi introduced a specific scene to the plot that would serve as the ultimate inspiration for the later protest. In this scene, the protagonist Freya, is driving to the clinic where she will undergo a procedure to stop the pain she is experiencing. On the way there, they weave through a women’s protest march that largely resembles the marches seen today.
“This particular scene,” Hunyi said, “where women are still fighting for equality in 2040, is kind of a subliminal message to the world from me to say: Look, in 2040, we’re still going to be fighting for the same things.”
This is the core concern that brought these women to Winceslas Square on Oct. 10. They are choosing to fight now so that there will be change in the not too distant future.
When the protesters were asked about what specific change they wanted to see by 2040, there seemed to be one common response that prefaced their answer: I have to come up with just one thing?
Mariia, a young woman who came to the protest not only to support all women but also her friends working on Calibration, stood in the drizzle thinking for a moment before answering.
“Of course, as a woman I want to be equal,” she said. “We still live in 2026 where the law is not written equally, where we have pay gaps, where we have social problems. Especially laws about violence towards women, is the first thing I would like to change.”
Amežka, another woman who covered her face with a mask and gripped her cardboard words tightly, struggled to answer the question as well. When asked about what change she wanted to see she started with, “Well a lot actually.”
Amežka has been fighting for women’s rights her whole life.
“I find it appalling that I’m here because I’ve been doing this stuff since I was 12,” she said.
Yet she returns time and time again to continue fighting for the reformation she knows is necessary.
“A lot of women of my generation have suffered violence against women silently,” she explained, “So now I want to come and support the younger generation.”
Amežka, Mariia, Hunyi and all of the other women supporting women’s reformation and Calibration made sure their voices were heard in the square.
They stood as one, encouraging other women and men to face the realities of society and fight against the inequalities that women face on a day to day basis.
While change doesn’t happen all in one day, small waves like the 2040 march are what will lead to larger movements.
Hunyi smiled while handing out a card to a woman passing by, encouraging her to think about what she can do to help women’s rights. She adjusted her hat, standing strongly.
“Even a tiny dent is better than nothing.” She said.
Use https://calibrationfilm.com/ to learn more about Calibration and the people who made the story possible.
