Reas

Twenty-six-year-old Yoseli has served her prison sentence, but now she’s back in a cell block. An empty prison in Buenos Aires becomes the stage for a musical reenactment. In what feels something like a school play, a diverse cast of ex-convicts act out important moments from their time in prison.

This docufiction focuses on the unexpected joys and familial relationships among the inmates, who are filmed bathed in natural light on pastel-colored sets. A trans woman teaches her cellmates how to vogue, a rock band plays a song about their hopes and dreams and guards and prisoners dance at the wedding of two inmates.

The acting is unmistakably non-professional, but the scenes are no less moving. Sometimes the actors forget their lines, or the edges of the paper sets come into view. It is precisely through the fictionalization of their life stories that the prisoners’ deep-seated emotions are revealed.