107 Mothers

Peter Kerekeš’s 2021 film was made inside a women’s prison in Odesa. Lesya is serving seven years for a crime of passion and has just given birth to her first child. Children born in the institution may stay with their mothers only until they turn three, and that limit is where the film gets its tension. Inside is a world made entirely of women: prisoners, guards, nurses, women of every age, and without the colour of the uniform it is often hard to tell which is which. Kerekeš spent years there, and the women play staged versions of their own lives. It won best screenplay in the Orizzonti section at Venice.