Prisoner and Jailer
2019 · 16m · Libya
Directed by Muhannad Lamin
Genres: drama, historical
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, provocative, tense
A former Gaddafi-era prison official and a post-revolutionary militia commander find their roles reversed as prisoner and jailer, forcing both men to confront the Abu Salim Prison Massacre of 1996 in which over 1,200 political prisoners were killed. The dialogue is drawn verbatim from real testimonies of prisoners and wardens.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Verbatim testimony from a real prison massacre, role-reversal as structure — this is the rare premise where 'first Libyan short on Short of the Week' is the least interesting thing about it. Could go either stagey or devastating; the source material doesn't let it be boring.
Verbatim testimony staging the inversion of jailer and prisoner across Libyan political epochs — this is the rigor of Joshua Oppenheimer applied to a national wound rarely entrusted to cinema. The first Libyan short on Short of the Week, and the premise alone earns serious attention.
Dialogue lifted verbatim from actual prisoner and warden testimonies, then structured as a role reversal across two regimes — the form is doing the political argument. 15:45 of moral inversion built on documentary record is a more rigorous approach than most fiction shorts attempt.
Reviews
A gripping watch as it flicks between past and present revealing more about the titular men.
The film depicts two realities, different yet very similar, demonstrating how oppression cycles through regimes as post-revolutionary militias driven by anger and hate perpetuate violations mirroring earlier Gaddafi-era atrocities.
Festivals
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
- Locarno Film Festival
- Rhode Island International Film Festival 2019
- Ajyal Film Festival (Doha Film Institute) 2020
- FESPACO
- Alexandria International Short Film Festival 2020, Best Short Film (Golden Hypatia)