Program
69. DOK Leipzig
DETENTION
GERMAN PREMIERE
The roles at the École nationale d’administration pénitentiaire, or ÉNAP for short, are clearly defined: on the one side, trainee prison officers; on the other, the teaching staff. In his film, Guillaume Massart maintains this separation on an aesthetic level as well. Filmed mostly from the students’ perspective, “Detention” offers an insight into a demanding curriculum: How do you earn respect and make yourself heard among prisoners? What psychological strain comes with the job? Can trainee guards actually gain legal advantages in potential conflict situations? Over the course of “Detention’s” two-hour running time, a remarkable effect takes hold: as the students’ critical voices gradually fade, the prison system itself becomes increasingly questionable from the audience’s perspective. Can even a “clean” training programme encourage the abuse of power if it is not explicitly addressed and challenged? How does a uniform shape a person? Massart, who spent a full year at the school for “Detention” and underwent the training himself, finds a distinctive tone for an ambivalence that unsettles and unnerves.
With discussion
France 2026 by Guillaume Massart, 134 min, documentary film
