FRANCE: Argentinian director Pablo Tapero's film about maternity and jail "Leonera" competes at the Cannes Film Festival

Record ID: 708613

  • Title: FRANCE: Argentinian director Pablo Tapero's film about maternity and jail "Leonera" competes at the Cannes Film Festival
  • Date: 22nd May 2008
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 17, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DIRECTOR PABLO TRAPERO SAYING: "I thought this is something which only happens in Argentina, but no, it happens in a lot of other places as well, and in all those places they handle with the issue in different ways, for instance there is the difference in age. But everybody is taking this situation for granted and there is very little information in the world about prisoned mothers and their children. There is a law in Argentina which is generalizing the situation of those children and their mothers in prison but it should not be like this, because every child and mother have a different social background and therefore different needs and one can not compare the situation of one child and her mother in prison with the situation of an adult. There should not be one general law, it should be a lot more focused on every individual case."
  • Embargoed: 6th June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVAEVA1V97XXMJ7KX1XAHHUKLRZA
  • Story Text: A film about imprisoned mothers raising their children in jail by Argentinean director Pablo Trapero is in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
    What is life like behind the bars for children who lost their freedom merely because their mothers are in in jail? How many years should they be allowed to live with their imprisoned mothers? These are some of the questions Argentinean director Pablo Trapero is raising in his latest film Lion's den (Leonera).
    Starring actress Martina Gusman, who plays a pregnant student who is sent to prison for murder charges, Lion's den is competing with another 21 films for the top prize of the world's largest film festival, the Palme d'Or.
    Other films competing for the prestigious award include Blindness from Brazilian director Fernando Meireilles, that opened the festival, and the Exchange from Clint Eastwood.
    Addressing maternity, jail and justice, most parts of Lion's den were shot inside Argentinean maximum security prisons, with the whole set and cast coexisting with the penitentiary system for most of the production.
    Sitting on the beach in Cannes, Gusman recalled how she first felt frightened by the inmates, but soon developed sympathy and understanding for their situation.
    "I entered little by little into this world of prisons. Obviously before getting in there I was afraid and I had a lot of prejudices about this. I did not know what to say and what not to say, how to move inside there. So my first time in the prison was hilarious, I was brought by the prison keepers into a big yard so I could talk to the female inmates, and I thought the keepers would stay with me, but no, bang, they closed and locked the doors behind me and left me on my own. And I thought, oh no, what am I doing here? Some things were they way I hag imagined it, but others were not.
    I met women who were telling horrible stories, but then I also saw a big solidarity among the women. And I saw women who created families among them selves, which we adopted in the movie," Gusman said.
    The film mostly deals with the story of Julia and her son Tomas who is born inside the prison. Bringing up the child is difficult and annoying, but more and more Julia feels this boy is her only valued one left.
    "Human beings can get used to anything, first I was afraid but then I heard the story of one female inmate and I got so attached to her story, so it did not matter being in Cannes or in jail, I was just listening to the story that Woman was telling me," Gusman said.
    Gusman, who besides starring in the movie also acted as the executive producer of the project, said she hopes the film will raise awareness about the precarious issue of imprisoned mothers and their children.
    "Besides being in Cannes it is this film that matters to me, because of its content. It is an universal theme and those kids should not be in jail. This film will not change the World, but if it only could raise questions, that would be a big goal," Gusman said.
    During the production of the film, director Trapero said he realised the theme of his movie is a problematic issue that is dealt with differently all over the world. In Argentina the law stipulates a child can stay with his imprisoned mother until the age of four, in some other countries it is until six years while others it is just for a few months. Trapero said during the process of the movie he came to believe each case should be judged individually.
    "I thought this is something which only happens in Argentina, but no, it happens in a lot of other places as well, and in all those places they handle with the issue in different ways, for instance there is the difference in age. But everybody is taking this situation for granted and there is very little information in the world about prisoned mothers and their children.
    There is a law in Argentina which is generalizing the situation of those children and their mothers in prison but it should not be like this, because every child and mother have a different social background and therefore different needs and one can not compare the situation of one child and her mother in prison with the situation of an adult. There should not be one general law, it should be a lot more focused on every individual case," Trapero said.
    The film shows how after years in prison Julia, grown accustomed to the prison environment, has become hard, a woman who must struggle to recover her freedom and that of her son.
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