Leonera

In Buenos Aires, the independent college student Julia Zárate (Martina Gusman) awakes in her apartment with gore everywhere and her lover Nahuel stabbed and his lover Ramiro (Rodrigo Santoro) covered of blood but still alive. Julia is pregnant and is sent to a special wing in the prison with mothers and pregnant prisoners to wait for trial. Julia befriends Marta (Laura Garcia), who has two children and helps her to understand motherhood and life in prison. Julia delivers Tomás (Tomas Plotinsky) and sooner her mother tries to kidnap her grandson, causing a rebellion in Julia's wing. When Ramiro, who was also Julia's lover, accuses her of murdering Nahuel, her expectation of raising Tomás is frustrated.

Movies about prison are usually interesting and in this regard "Leonera" is engaging. I do not recall any other movie of this theme showing a mother raising her son in this environment, especially in a Third World country. The humanity of the guards in the Argentinean prison surprises. However, the screenplay of "Leonera" is a complete mess in the development of the lead character Julia. If this story was based on a true event, I could understand the non-conclusive situation; however, it is fictional and there are many flaws in Julia's character and the most obvious is whether she is guilty or innocent. The viewer never knows if she killed her lover Nahuel or not. Then she rejects her baby and tries to provoke an abortion, hitting her womb several times; why she changes her behavior after the birth of Tomás is again never clear. I recall that one prisoner tells her that the wing where she is imprisoned is totally different from the rest of the prison. Last but not the least, her triangle of love with Nahuel and Ramiro is extremely confused, considering that Ramiro is the lover of Nahuel. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Leonera"

This is really powerful cinema presented by Pablo Trapero. The movie, the performances and the location will leave you breathless. This movie is not only about a mother's struggle about raising her child in a prison, but it goes much beyond it in a bold, brutal and beautiful way. The whole movie is about love, mother's love for his child, love between two human beings and the extent to which a mother will go to get her child back. Shooting the movie in a real prison and adding this to a very clever use of background prison noises creates an atmosphere which makes the whole presentation even more gripping. Usually the prison movies will depict the prisoners and the prison guards as brutal, heartless and inhuman beings, but in this movie Trapero tried to touch the softer, more humane side of the inmates and the guards. Even though I don't know Spanish , but I loved watching this movie. Martine Gusman's wonderful performance makes this movie a must see for the serious cinema lovers.

The women in prison genre is often associated with cat-calling girl-fights and the guilty pleasure to the audience of women talking dirty and acting, actions supposed to be the purview of Tarzan aping men. Trapero's Leonera offers something else, an inquisition into how a life behind bars can change the human psyche and create a bond between a child and a mother. Echoing the early movies of the French New Wave that placed the gyneco-issues front and center and the point of view objectivity of the Dardenne Brothers, it is a worthy addition to what can be called the post-modern woman's picture. What is it like to give birth to your child behind bars? To have your child taken away, the rejoinder and enjoinder are all explored. With a wonderful performance by Martina Gusman, it is another worthy canon to 21st Century Argentine cinema.

70 years of movie going and with seeing 'Lion's Den' I've experienced the most remarkable film of my life. The writers delivered a great story which then had life breathed into it by sensitized actors, both writers and actors efforts directed with enormous creative humanity by Pablo Trabero. I saw no artifice and after watching some of the movie allowed myself a mili-second of time to think of 'Lion's Den' as being a documentary before forgetting any of that and just became an involved, rapt viewer. Deeply touching. Deeply human. This review does not contain enough lines - the minimum length for reviews is 10 lines of text. There!

Shot inside a prison in Argentina with actual prisoners as extras, this film is raw and the viewer is trusted to endure the harsh realities of women and children in this environment. Martina Gusman is excellent! There are times where the pacing of the film seems to meander, but this is bold filmmaking and the story is excellent. It is heartbreaking to see how poorly the legal system works and the injustice so many women face. This is a real story about a forgotten population and it is told well.