‘107 Mothers’ tells the harrowing story of mothers in a prison ★★★★☆

In the middle of the night, the new mothers are awakened and taken to a neighboring building. There they are waiting for their babies to be wheeled in on a cart and the first joint breastfeeding can begin.

That’s how it goes, in the Odessa women’s prison. Slovak filmmaker Peter Kerekes based the three-year 107 Mothers to the stories of the mothers who are trapped there, and who play themselves in the film. They speak repeatedly, in unadorned, documentary-like interviews. Very clever how Kerekes and co-screenwriter Ivan Ostrochovský interweave these conversations with the dramatized account of the main character Lesya. This young woman, sentenced to seven years for the murder of her husband, is the only mother played by a professional actress: an introverted, serious role by Maryna Klimova, which makes the testimonies of the real inmates all the more powerful.

And vice versa. Lesya takes care of his son Kolya as best he can. The sympathetic attendant Iryna (Iryna Kiryazeva) warns that she must arrange another accommodation for him in time, otherwise Kolya will go to the orphanage on his 3rd birthday. Just like all the other prison kids who have nowhere to go.

That produces harrowing moments in 107 Mothers †Cenzorka† As relatively gentle as it is in prison, the recurring birthday ritual is so inhumane: a mother who first bakes a cake with three candles, after which she shares a few last moments with her child in the orphanage. It is precisely the restrained style, with its picturesque, pastel-colored tableaux, that makes these scenes hit hard.

Find here and there 107 Mothers moments of lightness, such as when Kolya helps Iryna sort the prison mail. Kerekes offers glimpses of the outside world when the camera lingers in front of the prison gates once again, or when Iryna takes off. She lives in a shabby little apartment on the prison grounds, and often spends the evening reading the letters that the inmates receive. Sometimes she goes out alone or with her mother, who doesn’t understand why Iryna is wasting her life. Slowly Iryna detaches herself from the background of the film, so subtle that you hardly notice how important she becomes as a character.

And what does she feel or think when she looks at Lesya and Kolya? Insidious but inescapable it is, how 107 Mothers in spite of everything, very carefully, let’s hope for a happy ending – or something similar.