Renowned Brussels documentary photographer — he won a World Press Photo prize in 2008, works regularly for the National Geographic Magazine and for the Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles -, Cédric Gerbehaye lived for many years on rue de la Jonction in Brussels. Or between two prisons, that of men in Forest and that of women in Berkendael.
In 2016, after two years of frequenting the premises, he obtained exceptional authorization to be able to film, alone, within Forest prison (and, to a lesser extent, Berkendael prison). And this until its closure, on November 18, 2022, and the transfer of inmates to the new Haren prison, northeast of Brussels.
Six years of work
The result of these six years of immersion within the Brussels penitentiary institution is a formidable documentary. Shot in slick black and white, The Pain gives us access to a reality that is mostly invisible. If he films the inmates and guards like real film characters, like real “mouths”, the filmmaker never seeks to dramatize or fictionalize his film. Without voice-over, nor interview, without any background on the prisoners (who will remain anonymous, while we will never know the reason for their detention), this first feature film has the sole ambition of reporting on daily life in a prison as dilapidated than that of Forest…
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Despite the very harsh conditions of detention – most cells do not have access to running water – and despite the moments of crisis we witness, The Pain succeeds in unearthing the humanity that continues to reign in these dilapidated places. Whether through the understanding of a guard for the situation of an inmate or the good-natured irony of the prison director, Vincent Spronck. But also in these visiting room scenes, where these men hardened by life and by prison experience can let their emotion show in front of their wife or their children. Or when Cédric Gerbehaye films, with great dignity, an inmate rapping in his cell about his life in confinement…
Immersed in prison
Thanks to the special authorization granted by the office of the Minister of Justice and by the prison management, Cédric Gerbehaye was really able to film the prison in complete freedom. In particular, he was able to follow the prisoners in their privacy when, far from the guards, they trick themselves into hiding a mobile phone allowing them to call their family or to exchange USB keys filled with music…
Elsewhere is also home, but differently
Always at the right distance from the detainees, as well as from the administration, The Pain is an exceptional testimony to the conditions of life in prison. A film of deep humanity which allows us to see a universe that society most often prefers to obscure. By relegating him in particular to ultra-modern prisons far from city centers…
The Pain Documentary Production and photography Cedric Gerbehaye Scenario Cédric Gerbehaye and Andres Peyrot Music Fabrizio Cassol Assembly Andres Peyrot Duration 1h30
