107 Mothers

• Peter Kerekes
• 93 min
• Slovakia, Czech republic, Ukraine
• 2021
• Fiction

Visually excellent feature film dressed as a documentary mixes cute baby moments with scaled-down stories about crimes of passion, in a Ukrainian prison for new mothers.

Lesya has just given birth to a son in prison in Odessa, where she is sentenced to seven years. She is allowed to keep him until he turns three, the age when all children are sent to orphanages. If the mother does not succeed in being granted conditional release, or a family member takes over. In prison, there is also a dedicated guard, Iryna, who lives a lonely life, with another job handling her mother nagging that she should find a man and marry him. Director Peter Kerékes portrays, with much tenderness and subtle humour, a number of captivating fates, inspired by reality. Maryna Klimova is phenomenal as the stoic Lesya. The remaining cast are played by real prisoners and prison staff. 107 Mothers is Slovakia’s Oscars contribution.

- Camilla Larsson

• Hybridfilm
• Relationer
• Social utsatthet
• Verklighetsbaserat