LION'S DEN (Pablo Trapero/Argentina)

[oscar jubis]

There's an exploitation subgenre dedicated exclusively to women in prison. Serious dramas exploring that environment are not that common. Leonera, the new film from Argentine New Wave director Pablo Trapero (Mundo Grua, Geminis, Born and Bred) aims to fulfill that need. The English title used for the American theatrical release doesn't carry the implication that the film is set in a feminine milieu (as the original "Leonera" does), and more specifically a maternal one. The film's opening is quite striking. A young woman wakes up to a messy crime scene in her apartment. She is charged with the death of her boyfriend and the stabbing of her boyfriend's male lover. When she's being admitted at the prison, we learn she's in the early stages of pregnancy. The bulk of Lion's Den concerns her placement in a wing earmarked for women with children up to 4 years old, then the children must be entrusted to relatives or placed in an orphanage until mother is released from jail. Whether Julia is guilty or the extent of her guilt is secondary to the relationships between the cellmates and Julia's mother's attempt to assume custody of Julia's boy when he is only two years old.

Lion's Den, which received good reviews when it played in competition at Cannes and was subsequently chosen as Argentina's submission to the Oscars, makes apparent that Trapero is a skillful classicist. This is narrative cinema with a clear beginning, middle and end, told chronologically, without flashbacks or temporal disruptions of any kind. This is realism in the service of creating a world-on-film that the viewer will find credible, without expressionistic effects, image manipulation, or experimentation with camera angles and lenses. It's an honest, straightforward telling of a story that hasn't been told. One that engages the viewer from first to last frame, with a flawed but sympathetic protagonist, and a resolute and satisfying ending.

It would be unfair to conclude my review without pointing out the excellent, bold performance by Martina Gusman as Julia. Ms. Gusman has co-produced Trapero's last five features, including this one. Moreover, Trapero's ability to work seamlessly with a cast that includes established actors along with actual inmates and prison staff is quite commendable.

*Some of the best foreign films are being treated this way in this country: a commercial run in a single Manhattan theater (IFC Center, in this case) then the film is shelved despite good reviews (a New York Times' "Critic's Pick") then a DVD release six months later if the distributor has a home video branch (Strand Releasing does, so look for Lion's Den on DVD around January 2010)