Susanna Barranco delves into prison life with her film ‘Breathe’, released in DOC.Spain

Susanna Barranco, Catalonian actress, director and producer, presented the world premiere of Breathe, a story about the lives of seven women prisoners in Brians 1 prison, in which she analyses how they ended up there and what it’s like to live without freedom. The documentary is part of the DOC.Spain section and is a candidate for the Rainbow Spike at the 66th edition of Seminci.

During the presentation before the festival audience, its director said that her position towards these seven women was never to judge them, “many times it’s about the context and the lack of opportunity that surrounds them.” She also stressed that unlike in northern Europe where there are fewer and fewer prisons, in Spain in recent years more have been built and the sentences “are longer and harsher.”

In the documentary, Barranco delves into the lives of the inmates and shares with them their daily lives: “You are going to see seven women who opened up to me, who explained to me and lived with me for two years.”

After the experience of filming in prison, the director reflects on the situation of prisons in Spain: “When you open the prison doors, you realise that what we imprison is poverty, that prisons are very racialised, that they are designed by men and for men.”

The next screening of Breathe is Saturday 30th at 22:15h at Broadway Cinemas.