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'Invisible Hopes': A real look at the lives of female inmates and their prison-born children
Depicting the harsh realities of life for female inmates and their children born in prison, the documentary film reveals a complex problem of the correctional system.
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Documentary filmmaker Lamtiar Simorangkir (left, foreground), appears in a group photo with several female inmates and their children who appear in 'Invisible Hopes', about children born to women in prison by Lam Horas Film. (JP/Courtesy of Lam Horas Film)
“Please open the door!” several children cry as they grip and shake the bars of the door to their cell. They wait every day for a prison officer to let them out of the narrow, crowded space they share with dozens of adult female inmates and their children.
They are the children of female prisoners who were born and are being raised in prison, which has effectively robbed them of a normal childhood.
Invisible Hopes is a full-length documentary by Lam Horas Film that depicts the harsh reality of life behind bars for these children and their incarcerated mothers. Shot mostly at Pondok Bambu female penitentiary in East Jakarta, the documentary film follows the lives of several inmates, some pregnant, their children and the daily hardships they experience.
L, a former inmate in her 30s, explained the struggles she went through while she was pregnant in prison at a media event for Invisible Hopes on April 1, 2021 at Plaza Senayan.
“My family lived so far away and I had no visitors,” she said. “I had to wash the clothes of other prisoners to make money to buy diapers, [formula] milk and food for my baby.”
Director Lamtiar Simorangkir said she realized she had to make the documentary when she met an 18-month-old child in an adult prison while she was doing research.
“We were having fun, just talking with each other, but when the prison bell rang, she suddenly gave me a goodbye kiss and left to join the others in [her] cell,” recounted the 42-year-old director.
