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Leonera review
:. Director: Pablo Trapero
:. Starring: Martina Gusman, Elli Medeiros
:. Running Time: 1:53
:. Year: 2008
:. Country: Argentina
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This Argentine director was discovered in Cannes in 2002, in the "Un Certain Regard" section. Already in El Bonaerense (the fifth film to his credit), Pablo Trapero showed great mastery of staging, choosing a quasi-documentary style about the everyday police of Buenos Aires. The director is back with a new work. The story of Julia, several weeks pregnant, waking up in her apartment with two corpses, one of which is the father of her child. She's locked up in a prison for young mothers awaiting her trial, where she gives birth to Thomas, who will be separated from her after four years.
Trapero's film, served by sophisticated but never flashy cinematography and an extremely precise sense of the frame, knows how to play the discretion of the objective observer who nevertheless feels tenderness for his characters. The camera moves back and lets time stretch out to better capture daily life in a prison. And when it approaches, it knows how to remain decent, avoiding any voyeurism. During a visit to prepare for her trial, Julia's lawyer advises her to cry. Trapero seems to invite the viewer to follow that advice.
The film avoids all the pitfalls of pathos which such a subject might have precipitated. No hostage-taking feelings, no peremptory judgment, no easy Manichaeism: guards are neither good nor evil, just employees of a prison. As for the inmates, they either punch or embrace each other in the shower, they trigger a mini-riot or help each other; they don't appear as victims of society or as misfits. Similarly, one can't condemn Julia's mother (played by a fragile Elli Medeiros) for taking the child away, her motivations and her distress — as a lonely mother — being reflected in her face and in her words.
Beautifully directed, the actors inhabit their characters. With Martina Gusman as the lead, expressing in a flash a wide range of feelings on her face and body, with a look that the director's eye gently caresses. She carries the film from beginning to end and serves as a guide lost in a world governed by its own rules in a fight for survival. Anchored in a palpable reality, the film holds its line until the last expected scene (the escape towards a second chance), but once again brilliantly plays with the traps of easy feelings. A success.
Moland Fengkov
Translated into English by Anji Milanovic
 Movie Reviews: Argentinian Films
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