Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Around 30 women live together behind the walls of the prison in La Tuilière. Incarcerated for theft, fraud, prostitution, drug trafficking or homicide, more than half of them have one or more children growing up far from them, with a sister, in a foster home, or even farther away – in the country they came from. Kashka, Karima, Mirsada and Fatiha, in prison for a few months or several years, try to remain mothers to their children despite being separated from them.

Picture gallery

Britta Rindelaub spent one year among five incarcerated women, which allowed her to shed light on their daily lives. There is neither great discussion nor sordid revelations about the environment or its workings. Instead, her camera is attentive and the ambiance quiet, devoted to these ordinary women who are locked up and forced to live an extraordinary life. The modest film mingles naturally within their routine, capturing pent-up tears, disarming confessions and occasional laughs. Their nightmare is not the prison itself or its personnel, who seem relatively pleasant, it takes place within their minds – their fears, their resistance, their lies and incomprehension. Hell is outside, where real life continues without them, where they have lost their natural place in it. When one of them admits, at the end, that she doesn’t regret the 30 months she spent in prison because they changed her, Loin des yeux proves its relevance and value.