"Lion's Den" in competition at Cannes

The film:

 Argentinian director Pablo Trapero's Lion's Den is among today's Cannes Festival Competition features. This is Trapero's third journey to the Croisette: in 2002, the director was invited to present his feature El Bonaerense in the Un Certain Regard section, and two years later, he was one of the outstanding members of the Cinéfondation Short Film jury. Lion's Den is the story of what happens to Julia, a young woman being held in a special prison. She happens to be pregnant and, while in the facility, gives birth to Thomas, a baby boy. One day, Julia's mother decides that she must raise the boy herself. Thus begins a desperate search...

"Despair against confinement can be endured if, for at least a few seconds, a feeling of hope or solidarity crosses the day," Pablo Trapero comments. "From these brief instants are born stories that light those lives. Wall and bars lose their density and prison keepers become babysitters... For all this, Lion's Den intends to build, not only a cinematographic tale, but room for debate and reflection. Motherhood, solitude, love, confinement and hope are the threads of this film."

Press conference: 

The crew of "Lion's Den," an Argentinian film presented in Competition today, invited the media to a press conference. Director Pablo Trapero was accompanied by actors Martina Gusman, Elli Medeiros and Rodrigo Santoro.

Pablo Trapero, on the meaning of the film's title:
"Leonera [the film's Spanish title] is a place of transit. It's the place where the prisoner is retained before she can move on to somewhere else. It's a cell, such as the cell you see in the place where she's judged, or in the prison... So we thought that the term "Leonera" corresponded well to the state of mind Julia is in - this idea of a transition, and a transit, as she's kept in prison for five years before moving on. The other meaning, which has nothing to do with the world of prisons, is that of a lioness, in other words, a very possessive mother."

Pablo Trapero, on the inspiration for Lion's Den:
"I wanted to make a film concerning different types of family: the family you're born into, that you inherit, the family that you construct, and the family of the group in which you actually grow up... And here, I wanted to make a story which concentrated on a woman, and particularly to deal with the bond, which is exclusive to women, between mother and child."

Rodrigo Santoro, on the character Ramiro:
"He was a very interesting character, because he carries a heavy burden of pain inside. He has to choose between his own life and the life of this woman that he loved... He was very torn within himself... As I had very few scenes to play, there was a real challenge for me to show this relationship between Ramiro and Julie in such a short space of time."

Martina Gusman, on the Julia character:
"Julia is a character I enjoyed very much. She is a character who changed me enormously. She's extremely intense, extremely lonely: a very solitary person. Through motherhood, she discovers a whole different area of her personality, and this will turn her into a lioness. And this transformation, motherhood, allows her to recover some of her personality, and to recover love... She is transformed both physically and emotionally."