“107 Mothers”: Maternal warmth in the cold of prison

The meaning of “the world” – should not be missed

For a long time, the mixture of documentary and fiction appeared as an irresistible horizon of what was still called “new cinematographic writing”. The main researcher, born in 1973, the Slovak director Peter Kerekes, for his latest feature film, does not aim to confuse them, as much as he trains a colorful division between them, an unprecedented harmony. His approach is motivated by his subject: photographing a prison, which is never easy, especially when one wants to escape from the sacred iconography. Setting up her camera in a women’s prison in Odessa, Ukraine, Kerekes explores how prison conditions adapt to biological cycles, starting with the most complex of them all: motherhood.

Many prisoners arrive in this prison pregnant and are forced to give birth during their sentence. Very often, their obligations are similar: whether they killed their own husband or his mistress committed adultery, their punishment is up to seven years. This is the case of Lisa who gave birth to a boy. The prison administration is equipped with necessary facilities for accommodation of babies, breastfeeding, maternity beaches. But the device works only up to 3 years, after which the child is placed with a family, or he goes to an orphanage. Thus, Leezea sees the deadline creeping ever closer as her request for parole is denied.

The young woman is the only prisoner to appear on screen, played by professional actress Marina Klimova, who is immersed in these places among other very real prisoners ( “107 Mothers” titled), detained while in prison and sometimes testifying in front of the camera. Nothing, in the early scenes, really separates Lisa from the penal colony, except for the slow work of choosing a plot that stretches around her like a funnel (a common frame in a documentary, the work of an artistic individual).

guard and watchman

Another character stands out: the guard, played by a real prison guard in the city (Irina Kiriazeva). The face of the institution, its role is primarily administrative, up to the censorship of letters addressed to prisoners, but not only: it is also the light of the night, which sees everything, hears everything, pretends to penetrate it. Also comes to take care of his constituents. Sometimes the camera accompanies him outside, to the house, to the small apartment where he lives alone, as if the prison has lost his life.