The days out there

The number of women in Buenos Aires prisons has doubled in the last five years. Most of them are imprisoned for violating Law No. 23.737, which refers to drug trafficking. Many of them are drug mules who use their bodies to transport drugs. 

Yoseli, one of the main protagonists, was held up at Ezeiza airport on her way to Europe. A modelling agency had promised her a job in Barcelona. Unbeknownst to her, she had two kilograms of cocaine in her suitcase. 

After conducting theater workshops in the Ezeiza prison in Buenos Aires, Lola Arias decided to make a film and a play featuring women and trans people who spent years in Argentinian prisons and are now free. The film reconstructs their experiences in prison, the play focuses on the time after prison. 

“Jail Rock” (working title) is a musical theatre piece based on the lives of the performers. The aim of the play is not to give a mere account of their experiences but to reinvent the musical genre in documentary form by mixing scenes and stories from their real lives with music and choreography. 

Argentinian Lola Arias is a writer, theatre and film director. As a multi- and interdisciplinary artist, her work brings together people from different backgrounds (war veterans, former communists, children of migrants, etc.) in theatre, film, literature, music and art projects. Lola Arias’ works play with the intersections of reality and fiction.