The Making of Justice

This is rather an interesting original concept.

We are in a room with seven men.  The female (the film's director?... probably... it is never said...) speaks to them, asking questions, drawing them out.  The film we watch, this discussion, is set in Belgium and all speakers talk in a Belgian dialect.

The setting is unique.  This is most likely a meeting room in a prison.  We never see any faces, the camera is very soft focused to record no details and pans incessantly during the non stop talk.  The men are all prisoners, we never hear names or why / what they are there, in prison for.

Who are they?  What are their crimes?

We never know.  This is because the film, while what we've described is the setting, has another purpose. 

This is to examine a script - through the female film director - about a character and a crime, a character who suffers punishment, redemption and - ?? - perhaps also exacts revenge. 

Near the beginning it is quickly established that identities of the 7 prisoners will be hidden, they will not be photographed, identified.

The female film director introduces a fictional character named Tom.  The assumption here is that she is discussing someone to be in a film.  The questions to the group of men here then is how someone like Tom could fall into, lead and then be punished for criminal acts.

Tom, who is 11 here, is a perpetrator of petty crimes.

What is asked to the men is what's going on in his family and life to steer him to this life of crime and then punishment.

How does someone become violent in later life?  What  causes that?  The men discuss family abuse - violent and sexual - that can embitter him.  There's also bullying in his life or circle of friends.

He becomes a loner. Minor crimes on the street which she - our director - says are anonymous, unpunished.

Boy steals a car, there's an accident.  He goes to prison for one year.

So?  Does he go to good or bad from there?  Our men discuss. 

He - the boy - hates the system. Gets out and needs money.  Asks his 'friends' - bad guys - what to do, where to go, how to?...

Our group explores the boy's options and his course of action now, the forward path, his motives and development. 

Good or bad from here? - BAD is decided.

A jewelry store holdup is next planned with his bad friends.  Going to be easy, nice payoff. Robbery plans discussed, nice payoff, details.

Dead jeweler.

Accident. Big mistake. Now a victim.

She wants to know emotions here, afterwards.  They agree - PANIC.

Police close in, panic goes, now - never surrender. Guilty of murder. First he's released back to village, where he's shunned. Then tried, found guilty, 20 years sentence. Ends up serving 12.

In jail his family is the hardest to see.  They do not understand what or why it happened.  The tears of his mother is as bitter as those of victims' families, victims' mothers.

Released, the men agree he tries to get back into his life.  First thing he does, first day is to go to the sea.  The men agree they all do that, it is liberating, no bars, they can see forever.

It is now a new world, all has changed. He's changed.  Looking for work he mentions prison - no job.  His father suddenly dies.  After funeral Tom gives a speech to the villagers and mention his crimes.  This provokes talk and 2 sides are drawn.  Once a thief....and... he's paid for his crimes.

Tom's sister is affected by his crimes.  She loses her job, he goes to correct situation and makes it worse, he's too aggressive 'don't blame my sister.

Tom confronts victim's family at a village meeting. They all try to talk.  How do you live with yourself?

Lastly he meets the man who turned him in for his crime.

Our men think there are now two possible paths for Tom.

One is rage at him or get  revenge with one punch, then 'you rat, get lost'. 

Or he thanks him, leaves him, not beat him up.

The men suggest a dramatic epilogue.  Our Tom now feels like a dwarf. Due to his diminished size he misses things. Crime continue but they now fit his reduced size such as purse stealing.

So our 7 men in prison have seen and described a life for our hero, They do not predict a good outcome.