'Welcome to Jail', the documentary on the world's first restaurant in prison

The prison is Bollate, in Milan.

"Benvenuti in galera," the documentary by Michele Rho, arrives at the Cinema in Milan for its first screening at the Cineteca Milano Arlecchino (in via S. Pietro All'Orto, 9) this evening - Thursday, January 11 - at 21 pm.

Produced by WeRock, after its premiere at the 2023 Filmmaker Festival, the film now begins its theatrical journey, where it will remain on display at the Cineteca Arlecchino before touring prisons, where it will be screened for inmates.

The topic of imprisonment and the condition of the prisoner is always extremely current, but often we prefer not to address it or talk about it with a certain degree of rhetoric: prison is uncomfortable and scary. By telling the story of the In Galera project, the first restaurant in the world opened inside a penal institution, the documentary film takes us inside a prison trying to break down these fears and mistrust through the stories of those who are trying to get their lives back on track by working.

For the young protagonists, work means redemption, life and future: Davide, Said, Jonut, Chester, Domingo, Pavel are men who have made mistakes and are looking for a second chance at life, many of them through work. Designed and supervised by Silvia Polleri, this high-class restaurant (and social project) is open to everyone: the waiters wear uniforms, and the chef studied at Gualtiero Marchesi's school. But the restaurant is not only a workplace for the inmates, it is also an innovative way for the external community to come into contact with the prison reality in a new and different way: a bridge between the prison and the outside world.

"The word 'Welcome' is a welcome for all of you to get to know us better and not be afraid or suspicious when you see an inmate or enter a penal institution. - says director Michele Rho - The documentary shares the extraordinary story of In Galera, run entirely by inmates under the supervision of a tenacious woman, my mother. But my goal wasn't just to tell the story of an exceptional restaurant, nor, of course, my mother's story. Thus, the restaurant itself became a special lens through which to explore the world of prison, an important topic for us to discuss. I approached the project by asking myself how inmates perceive the outside world, how they feel, what they experience. Therefore, I thought of them as human beings, regardless of their guilt, always respecting and caring for the victims of their actions. I'm interested in stories. And it's precisely work that becomes the key to everything, to avoiding prison, to being accepted back by one's family, and to avoiding returning to criminal activity. During this journey, I encountered a great deal of humanity and realized how little I knew and understood about prison and life inside it, because I was observing it from the outside. It's a small shift in perspective, but a crucial one. The documentary has a bittersweet tone and deliberately avoids playing with drama. Prisoners are human beings and levity makes the punishment more bearable."