Documentaries

Städtebewohner

Thomas Heise
DEU 2014
82 min
V'14

STAEDTEBEWOHNER tells the story of everyday life in the “Comunidad San Fernando”, a prison in Mexico City. About 200 prisoners are currently living here, offenders who were sentenced as juveniles for a maximum of five years to San Fernando in order to leave it as men not older than 23 years. In quiet observations the film portrays the life of the residents of San Fernando. It is December. We get to know three of those 200 better. There are Samuel and Ever, still children when they were judged guilty of murder. “It’s complicated but I didn’t do it” says Samuel. “Now I’m in here.” “I shot him in the head”, Ever says, and what does his glance say when adding “I was 14”? And there is Irving, who was a robber and fears the outside, his liberty, when spring will come. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve his father explains to him where to aim accurately in order to best shoot someone dead. People act just as they are pleased to do. Encountering someone around here is a constant and edgy changing between closeness and distance. As is the city where the prison is at.

In the presence of Thomas Heise.

Credits
  • Thomas Heise
  • Robert Nickolaus
  • Thomas Heise
  • Christian Haardt
  • Mike Gürgen
  • Bowen Liu
Thomas Heise, Filmuniversität «Konrad Wolf» (HFF) Potsdam

Deckert Distribution

HDCam
bw
Related Movies