Cell Block 4

Alberto Sarlo, an attorney and writer from La Plata, embarks on a utopian project: to teach philosophy, literature and boxing to 52 convicts from Cell Block 4 in a maximum security prison located in Florencio Varela, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. The inmates talk about Hegel, Sartre, Dostoevsky, the superman, and write stories in which they bare their souls and tell of their experiences as convicts. Philosophy helps them to rethink their lives, their fates and the decisions they made. Carlos “Kongo” Mena, an inmate who has just been released, returns to the jail as Sarlo’s assistant, providing his perspective, somewhat closer to that of the reality of the other inmates. Alberto succeeds in turning Carlos into the first ex-convict hired to teach at Buenos Aires prisons. For many of them, he is proof that redemption is indeed possible. (Mar del Plata International Film Festival)