CREDITS

A Gema Films, Sutor Kolonko, Mira Film production
STARRING Yoseli Marlene Arias, Ignacio Amador Rodriguez, Estefanía del Lujan Hardcastle, Noelia Luciana Perez, Paulita Verónica Asturayme, Carla Romina Canteros
PRODUCED BY Gema Juárez Allen and Clarisa Oliveri
IN COPRODUCTION WITH Ingmar Trost and Vadim Jendreyko
PRODUCTION DIRECTION Carla Rosmino, Pascal Moor, Bettina Muller
FD Martín Benchimol
EDITING Ana Remón, José Goyeneche
PRODUCTION DESIGNER Ángeles Frinchaboy
COSTUMES Andy Piffer
SOUND DESIGN Sofía Straface 
ORIGINAL MUSIC Ulises Conti
VOCAL TRAINING Mailén Pankomin
CHOREOGRAPHY AND MOVEMENT Andrea Servera
CHOREOGRAPHY AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH Leticia Manzur
PRODUCTION AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH Lucila Piffer
RESEARCH Tálata Rodrigez, Julieta Alani, Antü Cifuentes
PRODUCTION MANAGER Ariana Aisenberg, Lucía Vela
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Alejandro Rath
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Sofía Rocha
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Valentina Ruiz Cucchiarelli
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS Victoria Ranieri, René Guerra
FD AND CAMERA 2ND UNIT Eduardo Crespo, Gaffer Marcos Mendivil
HEAD REFLECTOR Daiana von Foerster
CAMERA ASSISTANT Wanda Feduzka
SOUNDMEN María Elisa Canobra Zapata, Victoria Franzan
MICROPHONIST Juan Ignacio Iribarne
SET DESIGNER Maru Tome
SET DESIGN ASSISTANT Juana 
COSTUME ASSISTANTS Emanuel Diaz, Ana Nava, Emanuel De la Rosa
ASSISTANT EDITOR Blas Schverdfinger
FOLEY AND ADR Lautaro Zamaro 
STILL PHOTOGRAPHER Eugenia Kais 
POST COORDINATOR Noelia Couto
COLOR CORRECTION Guido Tomeo 
LEGAL COUNSEL Mariana Volpi 
POSTER Diego Berhaka
INTERNATIONAL SALES Luxbox Films- Fiorella Moretti

TOUR

AWARDS

PRESS

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DIRECTOR'S NOTE

In 2019, I decided to make a film and theatre workshop inside the prison. They sang, danced, and performed improvisations based on their lives to explore how to transform these real stories into a script. Initially, I wanted to make the film in prison while they were serving their sentences. But then the pandemic came, and nobody could enter the prison anymore (no family visits, artistic activities, nothing). So, I started to think about filming in the former Caseros Prison with recently released people. The decision to film outside the jail with people who had already served their sentences was essential because it allowed me to reconstruct that world through the protagonists' memories, taking a distance from their everyday reality.

I also realized that music and dance were perfect ways to explore their memories. That’s how REAS ended up like a documentary-musical film. The musical genre, which traditionally portrays marginal worlds in a stylized and romantic way with virtuous actors and dancers, became a vehicle for reconstructing the real stories of a group of people who had no acting or musical training, to make them shine in an unfamiliar way.

I wanted to make a film about a women’s prison without reproducing stigmatization. Through songs based on the protagonists' experiences and choreographies developed with them, real life was transformed into fiction. We used different popular genres: a pop song tells of Yoseli's desire to travel to Paris, a cumbia relays the complex relationship between detainees and the prison service. In each musical moment, real stories unfold in unimagined directions.

During the filming, I was confident that the musical strategy was the right way to go as I saw how the protagonists shone in the scenes, the songs, and the choreography, as they were able to transform that traumatic experience into something else. Filming in prison was moving, disturbing, and also a lot of fun. We filmed a concert for their family and friends and even transformed the prison yard into a beach with sand, palm trees, and umbrellas. The aim of REAS was not to make another prison drama but to focus on the bonds of love and community between cis women and trans people that keep them alive in a space of confinement and violence.

Lola Arias
January 2024

REVIEWS

LA ESTATUILLA (MEX): Review: "Reas", destigmatization through musicals (Berlinale 2024) • By Jorge Espinoza

«Argentine director Lola Arias creates an excellent work, Reas, which uses the musical genre to reframe the vision of people in prison, and finds in its characters solidarity, camaraderie and a great love for life.»

MICROPSIA: Berlinales 2024: Review of «Reas» by Lola Arias (Forum) • By Diego Lerer

«The songs in the film, in that sense, help a lot, giving REAS a "wish-fulfillment" tone that does not necessarily relate to reality. »

OTROS CINE: Festivales: Crítica de “Reas”, película de Lola Arias (sección Forum) - #Berlinale2024 • By Diego Battle

«The music (and the lyrics, and the choreography) will also be an essential part of a film that in several passages bets on the musical as if to show that not everything is sordidness, heartbreak, violence, searches and repression (which there are), because there is room for fantasy, playfulness, catharsis. »

OVERLY HONEST MOVIE REVIEWS (US): Reas - by Lola Arias • by Chris Jones

«REAS is a testament to the enduring power of cinema to inspire change, challenge perceptions, and illuminate the untold stories of our time.» 

ICS (Int’l): Berlinale 2024 review: Reas (Lola Arias) • By E. Nina Rothe

«Reas is a masterpiece of possibilities, a documentary which shows the resilience of our human spirit and how hope, art and just a little imagination can change the walls built around us into open air spaces.» 

ZIZ NEWS: REAS - dir. Lola Arias Review • By Navid Nikkhah Azad

«Do we see life in black and white? In shades of gray? Or do we see it in color? The film’s discussion revolves around this point; it wants to tell us that there are other ways to look.»

DOG AND WOLF by Alexa Dalby

«Reas is an extraordinary documentary and musical by Lola Arias set in a women's prison in Argentina, unlike anything you'll have seen before.»

INTERVIEWS

TAZ: Lola Arias on her film "Reas": «Not a spectacle of violence » • interview by Eva-Christina Meier

ARTE TV: Rencontre avec Lola Arias

GOETHE (DE): "Art as a tool for emancipation" • By Camila Gonzatto

CINEUROPA: Lola Arias • Director of Reas • Interview by Muriel Del Don

BUENOS AIRES TIMES: Lola Arias: ‘I'm not interested in reproducing stigmatisation’ • By Nancy Giampaolo

PAG 12: Lola Arias: Interview by Luciano Monteagudo