En bataille

Marie L. is 35 and runs a men’s prison. On duty she weighs every word she says to inmates and colleagues; in the evening she retreats to her service flat near the facility. Between “real life” and prison routine she looks for a balance that lets her keep up a job she chose herself and that costs her a great deal – not least her life as a woman. Eve Duchemin turns her attention away from the inmates and towards the administrative side, a perspective that sets the film apart from most prison documentaries, and pairs this intimate portrait with broader questions about justice and the penal system. Trained at the Brussels film school INSAS, the director, who had earlier portrayed marginalised young people in “Avant que les murs tombent” (2009) and “L’Âge adulte” (2012), shot the film herself and stays close to her subject, including in the hours after work. While working on the project she found the material for her first fiction feature, “Temps mort” (2023). A French-Belgian co-production with Arte France that runs just under an hour, “En bataille” was shown at the 2016 Namur International Francophone Film Festival and won the 2017 Magritte Award for Best Documentary.