14.09.22 | GOTTESZELL – A WOMEN’S PRISON (DE 2001, Helga Reidemeister)

GER 2001, D: Helga Reidemeister, Doc, 104′, OV with English subtitles, 35mm

Inside views of a usually sealed place. Using the example of “Gotteszell” in Baden-Wuerttemberg as a microcosm, Helga Reidemeister undertakes an examination of the institution “Women’s Prison”, tracing questions of guilt, punishment and atonement, not least letting the prisoners have their say. Six women tell of their lives before incarceration and of problems like being separated from their children. Besides the ones sentenced to relatively short sentences – mostly because of drug offences – the prisoners sometimes serving lifelong sentences because of homicide and manslaughter also speak out.