Inside the Torre das Donzelas (Maiden’s Tower) of the Tiradentes Prison, “you don’t have a name; you don’t exist.” Despite the name of the tower, its former prisoners are a far cry from demure maidens, according to their own words. This group of women, including former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, resisted Brazil's dictatorship of the 70s and 80s. Maiden’s Tower, directed by Susanna Lira, tells the story of how they broke the silence to fight for freedom and equality.
It proceeds to tell that story in a fairly simplistic format. Opening with scenes of brutal military acts against protestors, the rest of the film compiles informal discussions between the women, who reunite for this documentary 45 years after the end of the dictatorship. After drawing diagrams of the tower from memory, the women are brought to a true-to-size reproduction of the prison. Entering this space serves as a bold reclaiming of a setting that was once used for persecution. In what looks like the same place they were jailed, they experience happy reunions. They proceed to recall their arrests, their time in prison, and what they were fighting for. For most of the women, that is the most prominent thing they remember: the injustices they were and still are protesting.
The strength of the film is in the intelligence and dignity of the women themselves. Their descriptions and stories consistently land with poetic verve. However, the assembly and direction of these segments are lacking, as they are presented like disconnected, descriptive strands rather than one cohesive, enlightening arc. Although the documentary leaves viewers with a powerful impression of the women’s resilience, it imparts little knowledge of the context they were fighting in and scant information about how the prison operated.
There is an inspiration to be found in Maiden’s Tower. The reconciliation of former inmates is a powerful image in and of itself, but an opportunity was lost here to impart more than vague messages of social justice. An optional purchase for film collections specializing in world cinema and social issues.
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