Cenzorka - 107 Mothers

Movie
Written By Shane Virunphan

Cenzorka - 107 Mothers

Director: Péter Kerekes

Starrings: Maryna Klimova, Iryna Kiryazeva, Lyubov Vasylyna

Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ukraine

Year 2021

Click Here for Italian Version

"You dream of your crime."

In the prison, the young children live with their mothers. Mothers must serve their sentences, and at the same time, they must worry about the life, affection, and education of the children. The sentences have a long-standing dilemma: must the guilty be subjected to a retributive or rehabilitation penalty? Is it possible to think of re-education and contemporary prisons for children? The problem concerns the whole world. So, the United Nations has codified principles and practical behaviours in the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) Adopted by the General Assembly on 21 December 2010.

Rule 49 establishes a fundamental principle:

“Decisions to allow children to stay with their mothers in prison shall be based on the best interests of the children. Children in prison with their mothers shall never be treated as prisoners” (1)

Is it conceivable to treat mothers as prisoners and, simultaneously, children as free people in a closed structure, with limited spaces, armed guards and impassable barriers?

This is not a simple matter, and is difficult to solve since some guilty commit incredible abuses to obtain these privileges and escape from their responsibilities.

Ukraine is going through a troubled transition after exiting the Russian sphere. A civil war in the Donbass, an economic crisis with high inflation, huge unemployment and low wages. The effects are also visible in prisons. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting published a report by photographer Misha Friedman on Ukrainian prisons (2) focusing on the lives of the prisoners and their children.

His investigative report describes the disastrous condition.

In Ukrainian prison population is one of the highest in Europe.

“Perhaps the biggest change was the decline in the number of prisoners, from 147,000 in 2013 to around 61,000 in 2016. However, the prison population rate is still much higher than in Western Europe: 77 in Germany versus 167 in Ukraine per 100,000 of national population.” (3)

The buildings are very old and dilapidated.

“Women and children spend months in Ukrainian prisons before conviction. These pre-trial detention centers resemble torturous dungeons, many were built over 100 years ago and have seen very little renovation or even basic upkeep.” (4)

There is a lot of violence, low and inadequate nutrition, modest medical care, and a high number of prisoners with HIV and tuberculosis.

“... conditions are poor and nowhere near international standards; a quarter of prisoners are in pre-trial detention centers for months, even years; brutal treatment by guards, inadequate nutrition, and subpar medical care. About 20 percent of prisoners are HIV-positive, tuberculosis infection rates are very high, as well.” (5)

Misha Friedman's photographs are beautiful. They allow for metaphorical reading, and above all, they animate the bright dreams of the prisoners.

According to Friedman, children can stay with their moms until they are three years old. Therefore, their fate depends on their mother's verdict. In his photographs, there are many details, such as the floor, the refrigerator, the bed and the walls:

“The room is simply furnished – with a small rug on the floor, a white refrigerator, a child’s bed, and a changing table. A brightly colored picture of a flower bouquet and some unsophisticated icons adorn the walls. The scene resembles a Soviet dormitory for families – modest but well-kept, providing for the basic needs of mother and child. Only the thick white grating beyond the sheer curtain betrays that this room is in a Ukrainian pretrial detention center.” (6)

Friedman does not express an opinion orally: is it okay to leave babies with their mothers?

“I am not ready to judge whether it is bad or good to keep children behind bars with their mothers,” says Friedman. “My job is to show that this phenomenon exists, and how Ukraine is dealing with it in the context of its penitentiary reform, for children are one of the obvious lenses through which to see this reform.” (7)

Yet, he does not hesitate to express himself using the force of his images. In them, there is a story and vitality. In them, there is an inanimate aspect. The walls, the parlours, and the exteriors are painted by the prisoners themselves with skill:

“Prisoners decorate their own rooms. There’s no budget, no guidelines or any kind of code that dictates what rooms should look like. The rooms are reflective not only of their taste but also of an impoverished institution. Perhaps a wall is painted green because the warden was able to procure a few cans from the local paint shop, as a barter for some pickled cabbage made in the prison’s kitchen.” (8)

Peter Kerekes director and the actress Iryna Kiryazen in Venice Film Festival premiere copyright www.popcinema.org

The focus on the coloured walls in prison recalls another artistic study completed at the same time. The filmmaker Péter Kerekes denounces the condition of women and children in an Odessa prison in the film Cenzorka - 107 Mothers presented at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, winning the Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay.

In Odessa women's prison, Leysa - actress Maryna Klimova - is serving a seven-year for killing her husband, out of jealousy. She was pregnant at the moment of her arrest. Her child will remain with her in prison. The same happens to many other mothers, everywhere. It is a difficult life, of abandonment, of separation from family. Kids grow up in the community with their moms, with the warders, the assistants.

The plot is accessible but with considerable intensity. The director can develop some elements, avoiding too spectacular influences.

The viewer's first question: Is Cenzorka a documentary or fiction? On the subject, Péter Kerekes was often teased in interviews:

“It's a fiction that it's using a lot of documentary elements.” (9)

“Cineuropa: I didn’t know what was I watching: documentary or fiction. But your main protagonist is an actress, correct?” Peter Kerekes: It’s a long story. We originally started to make a film about censors. Nowadays, everything goes through computer algorithms, so these guys are the last ones standing. We found some in Saudi Arabia, focusing on fashion magazines, and then there are those in prisons, censoring letters. We found Iryna in Odessa prison, and we wanted to show a woman, sitting in her office, reading other people’s love letters. It was supposed to be your standard, Ulrich Seidl- or Nino Kirtadze-style documentary. Then we went deeper into the stories of female prisoners, having children, and I realised that it’s impossible to follow them all the way through.” (10)

He rejects specific genres, focusing instead on the emotional result.

The documentary-style would have been too cold, unable to depict complex humanity. So Kerekes added a plausiblestory but played by a talented professional actress to add quality. Therefore, the film is a mix of the two genres; the coolness of documentaries is combined with the versatility of fiction.

Clarified the most evident doubt, it is possible to follow the other themes: women and children in prison, motherhood, humour, guilt, repression, uncertainty, loneliness, and the absence of men. Then, there are social and political issues. One of the author's merits is the way he talks about women in prison, referring to prisoners as well as the prison guards, who live in restricted environments.

To prevent inappropriate interpretations, Péter Kerekes has eliminated every trite cliché inside prison:

“… in the beginning of the film we've wrote down the 10 cliche of the prison films that we never have in this movie you know like no sex scenes no nude woman in the shower no violence no bars no handcuffs no historical scenes and so on …” (11)

consequently, no titillating temptations, no abuse, no banality.

The director does not show saints, but women who committed heinous crimes such as murder:

"Their mothers have committed a crime, they often killed their own fathers, but they hope for a better life for their children." (12)

They demonstrate their human weakness in their confessions. They are close to the final catharsis.

It is a film about the total absence of men, bordering on misandry:

“There are only women in this film (apart from two Orthodox priests). During the research, we were amazed that in 90% of cases, women in prison give birth to a boy. For the film, it was a symbolic choice. Lesya killed her husband out of jealousy, now she is caring for their son. Inmates have to write letters to their victims as part of their therapy. Lesya writes to her dead husband "Kolya looks like you, it's your blood". Thus, Kolya becomes the image of her husband and her guilt. " (13)

Men are the target of women's anger, who, like the praying mantis, after mating, eat their partner.

As indicated by the English title, 107 Mothers is an ensemble film. The protagonists are innumerable, each with their own intimacy, ready to talk about themselves in front of the prison guard for a kind of psychoanalysis. However, Iryna and Lesya prevail.

Lesya just has her baby. The rest of her life is broken. When her son reaches the age of three, her pardon was refused. To avoid the orphanage, she asks her sister to keep him in her house. However, she refuses, saying she already has an uncomfortable family situation. Also her mother replies negatively because she wants a new existence. The unpleasant mother-in-law agrees, but only behind an unacceptable promise: once she is released from prison, she will never see him again.

Irina is alone and abandoned. She fights for her child. Although it may be hard to imagine a future, she wishes for a better, different existence for him, with more possibilities.

Her behaviour is never characterized by acedia, depression, laziness, or fragility. She has no melancholy. She humbly performs her task and reacts proudly and optimistically.

Iryna is the prison officer. She has a visible tone of sadness. She has a humble flat in the penitentiary, so lives like the prisoners. The mother goes to meet her and, like the relatives of the inmates, she has to walk through the checks. Iryna's mother scolds her because she does not even have a man, she does not give her a grandchild, while her friends have better daughters. Like the prisoners, her life is all in prison too. Outside the prison, she is a stranger. One night, she dresses elegantly in red and goes dancing. The director portrays a scene of unhappiness. She dances with men but does not enjoy herself. On the way home, on the bus, she sits in the back. In front, there is a group of noisy, cheerful boys. It is the contrast that reflects Iryna's character and choices. Iryna is herself:

“Knowing Iryna, I was fascinated by her character and her personality, by how she presented herself. She could be terrible (even for us), but she did anything to help the prisoners. I already knew that she was going to be the star of the film. As the documentary became fiction, the story began to circle around her. I realized that her best scenes are the ones where she interacts with other characters. She had a different character for each interlocutor. She is kind, abrupt (with the prisoners leaving their cigarette butts on the ground) and she is alone." (14)

Iryna has a strong personality. She works with dedication. She talks to the inmates and tries to help them. She does not want to be their friend, she does not confuse roles, and has a sense of duty. She is not cynical; she listens professionally to their misfortunes. She is honest, sincere, perhaps greedy and discouraged, but with a good soul. One of her tasks is to read letters sent to inmates. She has to censor over the top phrases, such as when they call her fat.

The opening segment is emblematic. A doctor examines a woman. Mid-shot. She is ugly and pregnant. Long-shot, two ladies are measured and weighed. It is a cruel sequence. Screams, she gives birth. It is a real birth. The newborn's crying continues into the next segment as well. The mother is in a police van, she comes back to prison. It is the life of the inmates. There is no excitement, it is just reality.

The other sequences have the same language. The women have to talk with the prison guard. The interviews follow one another quickly, interspersed with black cuts. They all have the same position, the same chair, and a blurred background. They report terrible felonies, but with serenity, objectivity, and without apparent emotions.

Then, there is the complicated duty of being a mother. Mothers wake up in the middle of the night. A nurse arrives. She is pushing a big wheelbarrow with the babies inside. The setting is bleak. Newborns are left with their mothers and they breastfeed them. In the upper camera, all the infants are filmed crying. It is motherhood "Being a mother is also a job."

In the second part, the children have grown up. The seasons pass, from hot summers to snowy winters. Now they are three years old, and they are lively kids, they play, they hide. Their children's birthday parties are very squalid. Every party is the same. The cake is in the centre. The mother and child are sitting on two small chairs in profile, while the assistant stands and watches the progress intently.

The monotony, the resignation, the pain and the solitude do not impede the humour and fun of women. Like when they eat a watermelon: they bang it on tables to break it. Or when the guard paints the shoes red because they are fashionable, and she doesn't have the money to buy the originals.

The scenes are repetitive, the details are real, like the ugly feet, like the details of misery, like the dialogue between Lesya and her sister in the parlor "And where do I take him?" when she begs him to take care of her son. The scene is repeated on the phone with both the mother and the mother-in-law.

The scenes are dramatic, they have an overwhelming emotionality. Children create greater affectivity. The disturbance does not come directly to the viewer, it comes sweetened. It is the greatest merit of Péter Kerekes, who explains his work:

“… i eden to have tension between the form of the image and between the subject of the image and the the substance of the image is really very rough because you see this prisoners that kill their husbands or they kill their lovers of their husbands becasue of the jealousy we see very rough situations the real birth of a baby so everything is real life very rough but on the other side the camera work is i'm not saying nice because it's not making the reality nicer but it's somehow weird aesthetic and i think between this beauty and roughness is coming a is creating a very strong and powerful tension and we wanted to have it like this in our movie also because ...” (15)

The scenes are repetitive. The details are non-fictional, like the ugly feet, like the details of misery, like the dialogue between Lesya and her sister in the parlour "And where do I take him?" The clip is repeated on the phone with both the mother and the mother-in-law.

The scenes are dramatic, they have an overflowing emotional. Children create greater affectivity.

The audience does not perceive any emotion directly. It is the greatest virtue of Péter Kerekes, who explains his direction:

“… i eden to have tension between the form of the image and between the subject of the image and the the substance of the image is really very rough because you see this prisoners that kill their husbands or they kill their lovers of their husbands because of the jealousy we see very rough situations the real birth of a baby so everything is real life very rough but on the other side the camera work is i'm not saying nice because it's not making the reality nicer but it's somehow weird aesthetic and i think between this beauty and roughness is coming a is creating a very strong and powerful tension and we wanted to have it like this in our movie also because ...” (15)

The stories are harsh, ruthless, merciless, and inhumane. The girls talk about the murder of their husbands, or lovers. They have to care for their children in difficult conditions. Their fate is uncertain. Yet, the director films them with a contrary perception, with a peaceful feeling, with an introspective beauty, with a calm attitude. Filming tension exists between the actors' recitation and the descriptions of the images. It is a deep and decisive language.

To depict more sensitive sequences, he films the drawings of jail cell dividers. There is no standard, everyone is free to design them according to their sensitivity.

It is a series of idyllic backgrounds such as forests, beaches, and lakes, all relaxing illustrations:

“… we were inspired by the way how this woman in the prison they are living, they are paiting beautiful landscapes to the walls of the prison so you have permanent feeling like if you are in a tv studio from the 70s you know green screen where the background there is a seaside or a forest or lakes or something what describes freedom ...” (16)

It is the same impression had by the photographer Misha Friedman, who is also astonished by a prison painted with freedom by the prisoners.

The film is almost anaesthetizing. There is no identification with the characters because they are walking towards their destiny. There is a moment of revulsion at the rejection of Leysa's family and the sneaky blackmail of her mother-in-law. The question is obvious: will Leysa be able to save her son from the orphanage?

The film proceeds like a mosaic made up of one hundred and seven women:

"We have created a mosaic." (17)

There is an intertwining, an emotional path, with the main plot focused on Leysa and Iryna. Nevertheless, other women are involved. The rhythm is continuous, with a resolute repetitiveness, like the harmonic sequences of the interviews, which all take place in the same frame. The lines and the colours cover an inhumane environment, with a rhythmic trend, a harmony, a drama and work focused on time.

The surprise is crucial. The tension is about the expectation of the future. The plot twist is unexpected, hidden in the narrative. It underlines the need for motherhood, it is the right decision and it is the attribute of the film.

The structure is excellent in the presentation of the characters, in the conflicts of the prisoners with the judicial system, with their families and with the hope of having a normal family with the child. The revelation is implacable.

Prison is a refugium peccatorum, sublimation elevates the ethical element, and evil (prisoners' mistakes) does not prevail over good.

The director leaves someone behind. They are the children, who do not seem to be the main victims. To them, the jail does not seem inhuman. Mothers have a fault, but what is the fault of the children? Why have they been condemned since birth? How to elude their passage from prison to orphanage or adoption?

The film won the Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay. Kerekes's judgement of his screenplay is sarcastic. More than the screenplay, it is curiosity that makes Cenzorka - 107 Mothers special:

“Even though the film was roughly scripted I was led by permanent inquisitiveness. There were very few scenes which were just fulfilling the text of the script. Most of the scenes were a surprise, had a life of their own.” (18)

Shane Virunphan
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