Another one for the all cops are bastards file.
Prison 77 is a fictionalised story based on the real events that took place in Spain during the transition from fascism to democracy. With the prospect of amnesty for political prisoners on the horizon, the ordinary prisoners demand it cover them as well. After all, what crime is not political?
As the main character is put through intake at the start of the film, a guard welcomes back another inmate, a familiar face, joking that he can’t keep out of trouble even in a democracy. The prisoner asks, there gonna be a job for him in this new democracy? The film follows the burst of hope following Franco’s death as life settle back into the status quo, and it seems democracy is just a word.
The movie covers the development of the Prisoners Rights Association and their various actions. They advocate for an amnesty for all the country’s prisoners. They want freedom.
If you don’t know how that works out, spoiler alert, there are still prisons. I didn’t know how the real events concluded, so it was still really interesting to see how it all played out in the film.
Prison 77 examines the brutality and futility of the prison system, and how we use the excuse of not dealing with our social problems by building four walls around them.