by Rossella Schillaci
Italia/Francia, 2016, 82'
Indyca (Torino), De Films en Aiguille in collaborazione con Azul
Lolita is 2 years old and lives with her mother Yasmina in
prison.
The time of Lolita is punctuated by a daily routine: in the
morning she’s accompanied by educators to the prison’s
nursery, coming back for lunch and waiting for the air time in the afternoon. Finally to sleep at night, after dinner, with
her mother and her little brother, locked into the cell. Lolita
wants to be with his mother out of the prison, but Yasmina
still has to serve the term of imprisonment for few years,
and she can’t go out. Yasmina wants to see her daughter
grow up, like all mothers, she wants the best for her. But in
less than a year she would lose her daughter, because
according to the Italian law, Lolita must leave the prison at
the third year age and the only possible solution is to be
given in foster care. With the lawyer Yasmina is desperately
trying an alternative. Perhaps the ICAM, a "prison-house" that is going to be built and where she can move in with her daughter up to when she will be 6 years old. Or perhaps, after the trial, the house arrest.
Meanwhile, day after day, Lolita is becoming picky, she
sleeps badly, she starts talking not so well. In Yasmina
doubts grow more and more, if she does not get the home
arrest, or if the ICAM should not be built on time, perhaps
the best for Lolita will be to be given in foster care...
Two years ago I participated in a course of infant massage in a nursery near the prison of Turin. In the same school were "housed" children of mothers in prison, they could get out of prison to play with other children only for few hours a week.
7 they were, coming from various nationalities, amazed and happy to play with other moms and dads especially, in a colourful and bright place.
At that time I didn't know that by law the incarcerated
mothers, who have children younger than 3 years old, can choose to keep their children with them, in prison.
At the course the teachers told me that babies are like
sponges, they perceive and absorb all the moods of the
mother and they reflect them like in a mirror.
In my personal experience, the first year of life of a baby,
although beautiful, it is also a strong and tough situation, for every mum.
So I wondered how it can be experienced motherhood for
women who for 24 hours per day do not have no one else to lean on, and they are locked. How they can let the baby fall asleep without being able to walk, because there is not so much space into a cell.
In the attempt to answer to those and other questions,
without any kind of judgment, I would like to show the
intimate story of a maternity, lived in a prison today.
Giandomenico Musu (Amministratore)
Asmina, Lolita, i Bambini e le Educatrici dell'asilo comunale Elvira Verde, Detenute e Agenti della Casa Circondariale Lorusso e Cutugno di Torino.