Portrays men declared mentally ill offenders (“internees”) confined with no release date.
Focus on people incarcerated in 9m² cells at Dinant prison, Belgium’s smallest house of detention.
After her marriage to Mounir, Murielle finds herself trapped in a suffocating emotional environment.
To attend his mother’s funeral, a man is granted a 2-day leave from prison where temptations await
Tells the story of the secret prison where Nazis were detained by American authorities in Luxembourg
Incarcerated people wander aimlessly through a desolate landscape. One of them tries to reach a blinding light.
Captures activist attempts to break into the Vottem closed centre for foreigners.
Three young men share their hopes and despairs in prison
The mother of two boys accidentally kills their father, throwing their lives into disorder. One son takes the fall and loses contact with his brother
A family contests with shame, love, criminality, guilt, and the pains of growing up with a jobless single dad
Recently released from prison, a man reconnects with his son and the child’s mother
Children growing up under Israeli occupation have dreams of going to prison
A love story between two Palestinians who fell intensely in love before fate separated them: he was sentenced to life imprisonment for acts of resistance, and she emigrated to the United States.
A man in his thirties recently released from jail, wakes up totally wasted at the wheel of a stolen van. At his side is a childhood friend he hasn't seen in ages
A little girl escapes the mental health institution she is locked in and goes in search of her father
After being imprisoned for fifteen years, a revolutionary journeys to France to find his old lover while avoiding the authorities
Explores daily life and discipline inside Everberg, Belgium’s special closed facility for boys.
An invading army destroys all color in a harmless town and brings it in a state of depression. Then a jester arrives
Recently released from prison, a man works at an aquarium to prove he is ready to reintegrate and connect with his son
The story of a family of Italian immigrants living in Charleroi, in Belgium. Matteo gets out of jail and goes back home to be reconciled with his father by offering him an olive plant.
A prison where you can leave if you admit that you are not a hero
Young men involved in Congolese resistance fight peacefully for democracy.
Young and in love, a Palestinian boy escapes the conditions of his environment by embarking on an imaginary quest to find three lost jewels
The walls of a prison and the voices of prisoners within it
A brutal home invasion goes horribly wrong. Dave, one of the two robbers, is forced to leave his brother, Kenneth, behind, and he is incarcerated.
As the last survivor of the Sonderkommandos, Silvano Lippi has forgotten nothing. Then, he returns to the WWII camp where he was deported.
Portraits of guards and prisoners at MACA, a prison built after the European model in Côte d’ivoire
Deep dive into the professions found within Lantin prison
History of carceral systems in America
Italian women who participated in armed revolution, some still in prison, reflect on their lives
Follows the daily life of a female prison director
A single mother dreams of opening a hair salon but ends up turning to prostitution to support her family
Women learn how to draw and create portraits that reflect their inner prisons and experiences
Léna, in her fifties and nearing the end of her sentence, is facing life after prison. These few hours of freedom are first and foremost a shock to the outside world.
After serving time for killing her abusive companion, a woman rediscovers her home town
A teenager, newly out of youth prison, struggles to rebuild trust and relationships.
A woman’s name is found on the walls of a cell in Saint-Léonard prison in Liège, leading filmmakers to ask what it’s like to love someone behind bars
Existential portrait of 6 people incarcerated together
Olivier Masset-Depasse
2010
A Belarusian mother is arrested and detained in a Belgian immigration facility while fighting deportation.
After escaping a psychiatric hospital, a man turns to graffiti to save himself
The film begins on the day of José's release from prison and follows him for six months as he lives and reenacts the events that have happened to him
Documentary on a rap writing workshop in prison
Eleftherios Panagiotou
2023
Confined in a room of a half-abandoned building, Jamal searches for the voices of his North African friends, imprisoned in detention centres near Athens.
A free take on La Chinoise, a Jean-Luc Godard movie shot in 1967 in Paris, relocated fifty years later in Dakar to discuss the alleged suicide of Omar Diop who died in a Senegalese prison.
A look at Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar and its rehabilitation centre for youth
Reconstructs a memory of the filmmaker visiting her aunt in a Turkish prison then shifts to the realm of the fantastic as they visit an imaginary country
People tortured in prisons in Burundi make theater about their experience
After his cellmate is tortured, a man tries to escape and show his freedom
A man hopes to obtain a conditional release after being a prisoner for four years for killing his mistress’s husband
During an open day at a disused prison, a team of television reporters, a former prisoner and a host of visitors drift in.
After doing 6 years in prison in Slovenia, Damien prepares to reintegrate
A voyage through Siberia accompanied by two people: a former Gulag prisoner who made his fortune in gold mines, and his partner.
Two former prisoners of the East German Secret Police recount the horrific techniques used on them and others when they were prisoners.
Examines the lives of detainees confined in psychiatric annexes after being deemed not criminally responsible.
After three years in prison, Ben wants to reconnect with his son and regain his place in society.
Long-term immersion in Brussels’ Forest/Saint-Gilles prisons, portraying inmates, guards, and administration
Tracks the transition from historic city prisons to the new Haren “prison village.”
Critical look at connections between incarceration and socioeconomic status. Criminal justice system as counter to the democratic image of Europe
Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd
2006
A survivor shares his experience at a detention center in Mauritania for political prisoners.
Marcus helps people forge documents, steal cars, and escape from the authorities due to his conviction that prisons are unjust
Grandchildren of the chaplain to Rudolph Hess, right hand man of Hitler, discuss the possibility of pardoning someone who is responsible for the deaths of millions
The case of a child with mental illness who later went to prison is studied
A carpenter mentors the youth who killed his son, exploring redemption and restorative justice.
After his son dies, the commissioner investigates a gang of bank robbers aided by a sniper
After having allowed his wife to perform a submissive role in a sex club, a man is sentenced to a year in prison and a large fine despite her consent.
A poetic animated film that takes place entirely within the cell of a man sentenced to life
Two boys form a tender, forbidden bond inside a Belgian closed youth facility.
A woman reintegrating after serving heavy time for joining ISIS
Four portraits answering essential questions about the future of Prague and Czechoslovakia.
Michael escapes from prison to find a father he doesn't know. During his escape, he meets Malika, a young girl trying to escape her oppressive family.
Hoping to find her grandmother in Senegal for the first time, a Belgian girl visits her family’s villa only to discover it is much more like a gilded prison
Solidarity develops between a child, a union representative, and a woman whose father was killed in a factory as a prison opens
Two lovers are put on trial for the murder of the jealous husband. A direct cinema look at the process of trial
Two soviet prisoners, liberated by the Afghan resistance, share their experience.
A first-person travelogue that paints a vivid, tragic, yet also humorous portrait of the white people still living in Zaire (formerly the Belgian Congo).
A young woman and a prisoner collaborate through different media to share their perspectives
A young boy finds his way while his father visits on temporary release for his grandmother’s funeral
After 15 years in prison, a man reinserts himself into society and falls in love
Slow portrait of the daily life of a man in prison
After getting out of prison, this documentarian wants to address young people and show that reinsertion is possible
The guilt of a man executed in Texas is put into question
Young Marlon visits her mother in prison for the first time since her incarceration
To avoid prison, Marquess Robert de Wavrin traveled to South America and became a pioneer of ethnographic cinema.
An investigation into the murder of Laurent Désiré Kabila
The king of petty thefts decides not to wait until the end of his prison sentence to reunite with his 13-year-old son.
Two people living completely different lives (her, highly successful; him, barely making ends meet) come together through the friendship of their kids
Recently released from prison, a young man must repress his pedophilic urges when a girl moves in next door
Video clips by men in Forest prison
Dedicated to prisoners. A study of the psychology of isolation
Portrait of a sharp Brussels investigating judge; insight into hearings and decisions about incarceration.
A film about memory, justice, and the difficult reconciliation process in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide that claimed a million lives.
Follows incarcerated teens in a closed unit, revealing harsh realities of youth justice.
While her husband is in prison, a woman meets the love of her life and the two lovers must avoid getting caught by the Tunisian authorities
Incarcerated while pregnant, young Ombline has to give birth and learn how to be a mother from inside the prison walls
A group of men at Lantin prison participates in a theater workshop and opens up, little by little
Intimacy develops through letters exchanged between women in prison
Interrogation of the carceral system through the eyes of the family members of those who are in prison
After surviving, as a child, the prisons of the Islamic State, Rashid has now reunited with his family in Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq.
A woman escapes prison to rescue her daughter from state custody, holds a driver hostage, and flees from the police
A man on death row in Huntsville, Texas, or “Prison City,” imagines his journey to the site of his execution through
Dorothée Van Den Berghe
2018
A young girl whose father is in prison befriends a young Moroccan neighbor and they try to reunite her parents
Just released from prison, a man tries to profit from his liberty but his father proposes a new plot to him
When her father is incarcerated, a young girl tries to see him but her father won’t let her
A scarred young man who loves the film Scarface tells the stories of his scars
Thriller inspired by a Belgian murderer’s prison escape; blurs fiction and reality through a film-within-a-film.
Filmmaker Laure Portier follows her little brother Arnaud for almost ten years in a quest for freedom and identity after his incarceration.
A man who works as a prison guard learns to tango and falls in love with a woman whose husband is incarcerated at the prison
Follows three inmates on weekend leave, struggling to reconnect with family and society.
The lives of four teenagers in an institution and under judicial guardianship between the summer of 1995 and the winter of 1997.
Narrowly avoiding jail, dad Robbie vows to turn over a new leaf. A visit to a whisky distillery inspires him and his mates to find a new path
A British politician is sent to Brussels as the new European Commissioner for Industry and discovers its corruption through a series of anonymous letters
History of Arab Spring via a multi-camera, first-person account
A young man tries to build a life in Martinique when he finds out his girl friend is pregnant
Interviews with people dealing with addiction in prison about their desire to quit and reintegrate
A man who pulled off a heist years past has to prove his innocence after other people killed the witnesses
Documentary on a Soviet spy and epidemiologist working in Israel
Portrait of the last moments of writers and lovers Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine
Women in a factory and in a prison develop solidarity
After testifying against him in court, a man fears the revenge of his childhood friend, recently released from prison
About to undergo surgery, a man’s mind wanders and explores the borders of and around his body
A man returns home after prison, facing the collapse of his marriage and relationships.
Songs, stories, and voices echo from a camp in Palestine where young men search for their friend who is about to be released from prison
