Kino – “Sing Sing”: Too free to be true

Everyone, so much is clear, play their role. This applies in every area of ​​life. The fact that the distribution of the roles is strict and clearer in some places than on others. In prison, for example, where not only the occupants behave as inmates and the guards as well as guards, but where the prisoners can also be distinguished according to different differentiated roles: the reinforced and the fighting, the daredevils and the concealed, for example.

Greg Kwedar’s feature film “Sing Sing”, named after the famous high -security prison near New York City, shows us these roles and in some moments also the players behind it. In addition to the little of the game in the (prison) everyday life, we also see actors in the real sense of the word: the prisoners are devoted to the theater play as a re-socializing measure.

After a generously applied “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, an ensemble from prisoners should come together again, a new piece is found. The focus of the action is John Whitfield (Colman Domingo), a heart-shaped man who, as a veteran of the prison theater group, appears as an author himself, forms legally to be able to help his fellow inmates and himself, and which is harted by his pardon , he denies any guilt for the murder for which he sits.

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As in many ways, Whitfield is opposed to a different prisoner: Clarence Maclin, who was actually detained in Sing Sing and can be seen under his actual name on the screen. Maclin is the “born” gangster. His criminal activities do not come to a standstill in custody. And now this man suddenly finds himself in the guided acting exercises, is supposed to dance, write, speak verses.

Whitfield’s quality meets Maclin’s cynicism. At some point these opposing types in the game come together. Even if it hardly looks like when Whitfield’s drama, which was supposed to be performed, is cut out by Maclin’s proposal to bring a comedic scene with cowboys, pirates, a monologue from Shakespeare and the ancient Egyptians. Despite all of this: the power of art is celebrated in an unconditional way in this film. And it is well overestimated, one would like to note – and you still hesitate because you hardly dare to allow yourself to make a judgment about the situation in prison about what could donate strength in this place.

A judgment is also difficult because the film wants to claim and claim special authenticity. Brent Buel, who was involved in the script for “Sing Sing”, actually worked as an author and director in the prison art program. Not only Clarence Maclin was actually in Sing Sing and now embodies himself in the film. In the end, video excerpts from real prison theater performances are also shown.

Unserted by what is seen, one may ask: Is the reality so reconciled? And if so, can a film be equally? But the second question may be unnecessary if you have to deny the first. It is no secret that people are being prepared in US prisons. It is also not that people sit in high -security institutions with enormous potential for violence. A little good will and the power of the game should be sufficient in “Sing Sing” so that in the end everyone is in the arms. The load -bearing music does the rest to make the prison system appear primarily as an emotional and interpersonal problem area.

Just as the theater, certainly rightly, is also presented as a therapeutic means to cope with an extreme situation such as a prison stay, so much the suspicion arises that “Sing Sing” should act as a therapeutic. In the film is not shown in the film without demonstrating the supposed remedy and the recovered.

“Sing Sing”, USA 2023. Director: Greg Kwedar; Book: Greg Kwedar, Brent Buzer and Clint Bentley. With: Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Paul Raci and Sean San José. 107 minutes.

Start: 27.2.