The Argentinian director Matias Italo Scarvaci introduced the film The Days with Her participating in the Documentary Competition of 47th Moscow International Film Festival.
The story focuses on Alejandra, the female inmate of the Ezeiza prison. She stays in a mother's wing together with her two-year-old daughter Aithana. The girl was born here and does not know the outside world. When she turns four, she will be separated from her mother. Then Alejandra will have to spend only some days with her.
Matias Italo Scarvaci: "As I am not just an actor and a director, but also a lawyer, I work closely with penitentiary institutions. When I was making my previous film, I talked to judges and one of them told me about a separate world where female inmates live with their children, and I understood I very much wanted to make a film about this powerful and contradictory world. Of course, not all Argentinian prisons are like this one, there are places with worse conditions, and if I had made the film a bit later, I wouldn't have had such a chance, as filmmakers with cameras are no longer allowed to prisons according to new rules. For this film, it took me about a year to get permission to shoot, considering I am a well-known person both in cinema and in law. After I got the permission, I started talking to various women, but only Alejandra was so passionate, like a sun, and was keen on taking part in the film. She appears to look very positive, but I understand how much pain and grieving she has inside, and this sunny optimism was more like her protective response".
The story focuses on Alejandra, the female inmate of the Ezeiza prison. She stays in a mother's wing together with her two-year-old daughter Aithana. The girl was born here and does not know the outside world. When she turns four, she will be separated from her mother. Then Alejandra will have to spend only some days with her.
Matias Italo Scarvaci: "As I am not just an actor and a director, but also a lawyer, I work closely with penitentiary institutions. When I was making my previous film, I talked to judges and one of them told me about a separate world where female inmates live with their children, and I understood I very much wanted to make a film about this powerful and contradictory world. Of course, not all Argentinian prisons are like this one, there are places with worse conditions, and if I had made the film a bit later, I wouldn't have had such a chance, as filmmakers with cameras are no longer allowed to prisons according to new rules. For this film, it took me about a year to get permission to shoot, considering I am a well-known person both in cinema and in law. After I got the permission, I started talking to various women, but only Alejandra was so passionate, like a sun, and was keen on taking part in the film. She appears to look very positive, but I understand how much pain and grieving she has inside, and this sunny optimism was more like her protective response".