Toulouse Cinélatino Festival: “Reas” by Lola Arias, prison bars do not always kill dreams
The Meeting of Latin American Cinemas, Cinélatino de Toulouse, opened its doors this weekend.
A 36th edition rich as every year, with multiple meetings and promises of discoveries.
Among the latter, in documentary competition, the film
Reas
by Lola Arias, young director and choreographer.
With a lot of humor and inventiveness, it features a group of ex-prisoners who talk about their lives and their dreams.
In the film "Reas" by Lola Arias, presented in competition in the Documentaries section, Yoséli and Nacho, two of the protagonists of this group of prisoners, get married in prison.
The opportunity for a great party and songs in this unexpected and paradoxically tender film.
© Cinélatino Toulouse
By: Isabelle Le Gonidec
Advertisement
Read more
From our special correspondent in Toulouse,
Attacking a festival adventure with a film like
Reas
feels good.
This second film by director Lola Arias - between documentary and musical -, who usually devotes herself to the stage, tells of torn lives of course, but by taking a step aside.
It features a group of prisoners, who have completed their sentence, from the Ezeiza prison, in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, and films them in the disused Caseros prison, in the capital.
Weeds grow in the broken ground of the courtyard, a beach and palm trees are invented, the walls of the cells are cracked, the gates are medieval... No concern for realism, the setting is like that of a play in a natural setting.
The same goes for the staging: the characters are also filmed head-on, most often in a group, in a choir, or one-on-one.
Sometimes they make mistakes in the dialogues and repeat their texts with a smile!
The clothes are sexy, the colors bright, although the director asked the cinematographer, Martin Benchimol, to soften the palette in the end, the femininity or masculinity (in Nacho) exacerbated.
Director of photography on the film, Martin Benchimol, accompanies Lola Arias' film but he also presents his own work,
El Castillo
,
a beautiful film that won an award in San Sebastian last year.
Here, the question of gender is posed in a very simple way.
Nacho explains for example that in his prison, in Ezeiza, he was in the trans wing which then accommodated two boys while the women's wing was full.
And in the film we celebrate the wedding of Nacho and Yoseli, a lovely sequence, with music of course.
A scenario built on the stories of the characters
The scenario was developed from the story of the protagonists, a variable group of around ten ex-prisoners and their guards, also former inmates.
The violence suffered, the errors and failures, the complicated family relationships, the harshness of the outside world were put into dialogues and especially in songs by the protagonists with the support of the musician Ulises Conti, author of the film's soundtrack.
Five of them also created a rock group in prison, which I believe was convincing.
Lola's initial project was to make a musical, says Martin Benchimol, at the premiere of the film, but, due to lack of resources, ambitions had to be scaled back.
Martin Benchimol, Argentinian director and cinematographer, invited to the 36th Rencontres Cinélatino in Toulouse.
© Cinélatino 2024
The common thread of the film is the arrival, integration and then departure from prison of young Yoséli, twenty-six years old and a face full of childish curves, incarcerated for drug trafficking.
We enter the film at the same time of Yoséli in the prison: body search, installation in her cell which she shares with a boxer, first contacts with the rock tribe, etc... Stories are formed, love stories - several trans people are part of the group including Nacho, the man of the group, an endearing character -, stories of rivalry too, family stories.
The violence of the prison and the world, real, remains off-camera
The violence of the real world (torture during the military dictatorship in Ezeiza or sexual exploitation), the harshness of past lives and prison (a regular beating) are therefore off-camera but they can be read on the faces as if that of the singer of the group, Estefy.
“
You could have been a model
,” Yoséli told her, admiring her body sculpted by hours of gymnastics;
“
With my head?
You're kidding...
,” retorts Estefy, a blonde with a sharp-cut face that is undoubtedly prematurely aged.
These choices of direction and screenplay can be explained because the director did not want to overload their already heavy boats, says Martin Benchimol.
The term “
reo
” in the title designates a person who has committed a fault and must be punished, but in
porteño slang,
from Buenos Aires
,
it also describes a maladjusted, antisocial person, explains the learned Dictionary of the Spanish Language.
Margins to which the viewer becomes attached from the outset.
Lola Arias gives them back a humanity stolen by incarceration, tells them in an almost “
playful
” way, and makes room for their creativity.
The director is currently transforming the cinematic essay, a successful attempt, into a play.
Six of the protagonists continue the experience, on stage.
A tour is planned which will take them to Paris in the coming months.
Yoséli, who has an Eiffel Tower tattooed on his shoulder, wanted to travel, to see the world, but his expedition was shattered at customs at Ezeiza airport when drugs were found in his luggage.
Thanks to cinema and theater, to culture, his dream is about to come true... Fingers crossed.
►
The entire program of Cinélatino meetings can be found here
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your inbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Share :
Continue reading on the same themes:
Movie theater
Argentina
Culture