Reborn on Water is a l documentary following windsurfer Weronika Lato as she rebuilds her life after aggressive bone cancer and the near-total loss of her pelvis.
Created by filmmaker Max Brinnich, the film is not about competitive success or performance. It is about vulnerability, resilience, and learning to trust your body again after life-altering surgery. Doctors had to remove the entire tumor — including a massive part of her iliac bone and part of the sacroiliac joint. What followed was not just physical recovery, but a mental battle to reconnect with herself.
Sport had always been part of Weronika’s life but windsurfing was all she wanted to do. After surgery and rehabilitation, she travelled to Rhodes to try again. “The chance of feeling myself again was stronger than the fear,” she says. She had to start on a beginner board, unsure if planing would even be possible. It took time. It took patience.
Then it happened.
The board started to plane and I was weightless again. I was free.
For a brief moment, everything she had gone through disappeared. The feeling she had fought for was back.
Reborn on Water is ultimately about something bigger than sport. “I am not a pro windsurfer,” Weronika says. “But it is so much more than being the best. It is about being alive. It is about passion. It is about fighting for what you want to achieve in life.”
Enjoy watching the film and if you want to know more about the making of the film, check out our interview with the filmmaker Max Brinnich below the video.
Reborn on Water – featuring Weronika Lato
Featuring the great Weronika Lato
Directed, filmed and edited by Max Brinnich (www.maxbrinnich.at)
Artwork by Luke Reinelt
Interview with Max Brinnich about the making of Reborn on Water
Continentseven: How did the project begin, and how did the story find you?
Max Brinnich: The project actually began more than a year ago. I knew about Weronika’s diagnosis even before she made it public. Marco Lang told me about this young windsurf girl who had been diagnosed with bone cancer. When she later shared the news on social media, it stayed with me. I kept asking myself what such a diagnosis would do to me, to my identity, to my sense of future, and to the sport that defines so much of who I am. I reached out to her, not with the intention of making a film. At first, it was simply conversations. Honest ones.
Over time, without really planning it, I felt the urge to create something. Initially it was just a video to motivate her, something that could give strength back.
But if I am completely honest, it was also about finding something for myself. After years of working in highly structured, high performance environments, I felt the need to reconnect with why I started telling stories in the first place. This project gave me something I had not experienced in a long time. There was no client, no strict deadline, no creative limitation. I had the freedom to shape the narrative entirely the way I felt it should be told.
What began as a gesture of support slowly evolved into something much bigger. When she returned to windsurfing, especially during the weekend we filmed in Prasonisi, I understood that this was not just a recovery story. It was about rebuilding identity. That was the moment I knew it had to become a film.
The production itself was concentrated but intense. We spent one weekend in a studio in Poland for the interviews and one weekend in Prasonisi for her first sessions back on the water.
The editing process took me about five weeks alongside my regular work, but with 2 weeks around christmas really focusing on getting it done. Cutting itself was not the hardest part. The real challenge was restructuring the narrative. The original concept was different, and even our studio recordings followed another script direction, and beside Weronika we let everyone talk more or less freely. Finding the true story within the material, the honest version, was the real work.
Making of Reborn on Water – The Second Life | Surviving Bone Cancer I The True Story of Weronika Lato
Did you follow Weronika throughout her real-life journey or were some scenes recreated or staged?
The emotional journey is entirely real. We did not recreate key moments of her illness or recovery.
However, like most documentaries, certain transitional sequences were intentionally filmed to support the narrative. These include travel moments, quiet reflections, and atmospheric details. They were not fictional, but they were consciously captured to visually express parts of the story that would otherwise remain abstract. And of course we had to work with a bit of stock material. The core of the film, including the diagnosis, the surgery, and the first time back on the water, is authentic and unscripted.
What were the biggest challenges during production, emotionally or logistically?
Logistically, distance was one of the biggest challenges. We live about 1,000 kilometers apart, which makes even small production adjustments complicated. If you realize during editing that you need an additional scene, such as a packing sequence or airport shots, you cannot simply drop by with a camera. Everything requires planning, coordination, and time.
At the same time, I was in the middle of the motorsport season. Through my job, every second week is a race week. Including travel days, I am often home no more than five days every two weeks. This film was created in the gaps between flights, events, and deadlines. Constantly switching between high speed professional environments and an intimate, deeply personal story was challenging in itself.
Budget was another factor. I financed the entire project myself. At one point, I seriously considered reshooting parts of the studio interviews. We had been rushing, and I was not completely satisfied with the quality. Realistically, this would have meant significant additional time, especially with the premiere in Poland approaching on February 13. It also would have required further financial investment for refinements that most viewers probably would not consciously notice. For me personally, this was incredibly difficult. I am used to working in a high gloss industry where everything is polished and where even an Instagram story is expected to look perfect. That standard becomes internalized. This project forced me to question that mindset. I had to decide whether I was making a perfectly polished product or an honest film. In the end, I understood that this story does not need gloss. It needs sincerity.
Emotionally, of course I was involved. I am not an external observer. I am a windsurfer myself, and I know how much of your identity is tied to the water. This was not just documenting someone’s comeback. It was confronting a fear every athlete carries somewhere inside. Over the last year, Weronika has become like a little sister to me. That inevitably changes your perspective behind the camera.
Weronika’s scar after surgery
What do you hope viewers, especially athletes and windsurfers, take away from the film?
For athletes and windsurfers, I hope the film expands the definition of strength.
In our world, strength is often measured in performance, in higher jumps, stronger wind, and harder moves. Real strength can also mean accepting limits, adapting to a new body, and still choosing to return. I hope viewers understand that sport is more than results. It is identity, community, therapy, and freedom. Beyond sport, I hope people see that even when life changes you physically, it does not automatically take away who you are. Sometimes you simply have to rediscover it in a different form.
Thanks for the interview!
