Groom's Block

2017

Groom's Block is slang in Turkey for prison sections holding those accused of serious sex crimes. The film's story and characters are drawn from everyday life. In the Groom's Block, the guards and prison governor manipulate tensions, as prisoners push each other to the edge of existence. We experience the tension and paradox of a violent prison and justice systems reflecting the shifting moral norms and structure of Turkish society. The jailed and jailers enforce violent justice daily, expressing in their lives a society confronted with its need to hide from itself, in desperate denial of its cruel contradictions.