One of the most acclaimed films at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, Lion’s Den is Argentine filmmaker Pablo Trapero’s fifth feature (White Elephant, The Clan). Julia (Martina Gusman) wakes up one morning to find herself covered in blood and surrounded by the bodies of two men, one of whom is dead. Charged with murder and pregnant with one of the men’s child, she is sent to the maternal wing of a tough prison. With her boyfriend claiming his innocence and her absent mother suddenly reappearing in her life, Julia soon realises that there are greater dangers for her outside the prison’s walls.‘Lion’s Den’ is a remarkable study of motherhood in the most extreme circumstances and once again confirms Pablo Trapero’s position as one of world cinema’s finest filmmakers.
