Lion's Den

Lion's Den (Leonera, 2008) is an Argentine drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Pablo Trapero and built around Martina Gusmán's raw, physical lead performance.

Julia is 25 with no record, and she ends up convicted of murder before her pregnancy is even visible. She gives birth inside an Argentine prison and raises her son Tomás there, in a wing designed for mothers with children. That wing has its own hierarchy, its own tensions — and Julia has to handle both while a custody fight and an appeal move slowly through the courts. Rodrigo Santoro plays the man from her past whose role in the crime remains tangled throughout.

Trapero — later known for Carancho and El Clan — brings the same unsentimental eye here that he brings to crime films. This is a film about maternity under confinement, and it refuses to simplify any of it. Stream Lion's Den (2008) online on iFILM.