Prison

'The Butterflies of Giudecca', the journey of female prisoners towards virtuous reintegration

The documentary, which will be screened today at 7pm at the Rossini multiplex in Venice, recounts the daily life of the prison guests. And turns the spotlight on the value of work in reintegrating into society

by Camilla Curcio

29 January 2026

Credits: Screenshot trailer Youtube del documentario «Le farfalle della Giudecca»

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Tales of women who begin to build or rebuild themselves within the four walls of a prison. Like little caterpillars ready to become butterflies and take flight towards a life of new horizons, goals to chase and dreams to fulfil. They fit together like the pieces of a large jigsaw puzzle in the stories of the female inmates at the centre of "Le farfalle della Giudecca", the documentary by Rosa Galantino and Luigi Ceccarelli (with the narrating voice of Ottavia Piccolo) which, on Thursday 29 January at 7pm, returns to Venice with a special screening at the Rossini multiplex, as part of the "Le Città in festa" programme. Among the guests are city councillor Giorgia Pea, prison director Maurizia Campobasso and two guests of the prison who took part in the project.

A virtuous model

Produced under the patronage of the Ministry of Justice, the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education, the Patriarchate of Venice, the City Council, and centres, foundations and associations including Antigone, the docufilm - screened as a national premiere during the 82nd Venice Film Festival - sets out to recount and retrace the lives of a group of female inmates in the aftermath of Pope Francis' visit to the women's penitentiary on 29 April 2024 to visit the exhibition space of the Vatican Biennial installed in the old deconsecrated chapel. "The documentary was born with a precise aim: to show a virtuous dimension such as that of the women's prison house of Giudecca," explains Maurizia Campobasso, director of the prison. "A special reality, first of all, for the solidarity and empathy that the citizens have always shown towards the prison, welcoming it without ever denying it, making it a source of pride. And then for the many opportunities offered to female inmates, between workshops and all-round vocational training courses".

Reinstatement through work

Because work is one of the great levers on which the Venetian prison has always relied to structure the social reintegration paths of inmates. Which, thanks to the support, education, training and employment projects born from the collaboration with different associations, have been able to measure themselves with a kaleidoscope of trades. And so, as the documentary also shows, some have found themselves in the role of guides at the Biennale or in charge of a laundry and ironing service serving the city's best hotels. Still others, on the other hand, found themselves working in a sartoria that takes care of fashion shows and looks for the godmothers of the Film Festival, among the counters of an artistic waxworks, in a cosmetics department and even in a vegetable garden that sells its produce outside the prison. In short, the authentic narration of an everyday life that tries to find its own sense of normality in a perimeter where routine often saves fromloneliness. Without, however, sweetening the more complicated aspects of the experience. And trying to eradicate prejudices.

"I believe it is important to convey a true message, never too filtered. It is fine to turn the spotlight on the virtuous paths of re-socialisation activated in prison, but it is also necessary to show how imprisonment is a complicated moment because losing freedom is not easy, just as it is not easy to find harmony with people who are different and have equally heavy baggage," Campobasso adds. "It is important to show precisely this duplicity: on the one hand the difficulty of sharing the freedom that remains, and on the other hand the ability to use that residue of freedom to redeem oneself emotionally and try to imagine a future away from the offence.

Synergy with associations

A future that often finds a springboard in the conventions that Giudecca enters into with associations, cooperatives of various kinds, the Department of Prison Administration, the Regional Superintendency and the Region. And that, thanks to the activation of tenders, they find in prison the fertile ground for a win-win exchange. "They manage to find free premises here where they can carry out their planned activities in exchange for training the inmates," the director points out. "Sometimes it is really a matter of qualified pathways that then lead, often, to a permanent contract. Other times they help lay the foundations for learning a profession. An opportunity that is aimed as much at female inmates who can come out of the dormitory room to cover work shifts outside as at those who, having served their sentence, are released from prison and intend to continue in a path already marked out".

Helping the girls to take the right path are the officials from the legal-pedagogical area and the ex-Article 80 experts (psychologists or criminologists) who, getting to know them and following them day by day, try to discover their passions, inclinations, aspirations. "This creates an individualised project, which starts precisely from their ambitions and previous experiences. And this is the most challenging aspect: to make them discover talents that they did not know they had until that moment or that they had never had the opportunity to touch with their own hands outside prison".

Leveraging the school

But that is not all. Because reintegration into society, as well as work, also passes through school. And from the classrooms of Giudecca, which, as we see in the documentary, for some mark a first time on the desks. According to Campobasso, 'one has to tailor the product offered to the individual reality. For example, in the case of foreign female detainees, put the teaching of the Italian language first, so as to help them make themselves understood and understand others'. The teachers, therefore, must commit to setting up customised programmes and also encourage participation in projects that go beyond books and work. "Here in prison, school cannot just be a mere transfer of notions but must become the place where inmates are taught to be consistent, to set themselves goals, to respect the rules and to find concentration."

Between Solidarity and Identity

If the prison experience, by its very nature or because of an already difficult family situation, inevitably leads to having to come to terms with solitude, sometimes, however, the walls of a penal institution favour encounters that console. And they remain. Until they are recounted between the scenes of a film about one's own life. "A real solidarity is born between the inmates," the director emphasises, "especially between the older ones, who also have a certain maternal instinct, and the younger ones, who find protection in them. They touch, in a certain sense, with their hands the chance to really be considered and to deserve affection".

And in this safe space, they also understand how to emancipate themselves without losing themselves. "Women have a special approach to imprisonment: they tend not to lose their dignity, also in terms of femininity," Campobasso concludes. 'Continuing to take care of oneself at such a delicate time I think is symptomatic of fertile ground on which to sow different values and perspectives. Without abandoning oneself to the idea of a destiny that cannot be changed'.

A collage of voices

If the voices of the inmates are the skeleton of the documentary, the voices of the women who work in the Giudecca prison and who help make it an example of constructive prison management are also inserted in the spaces of a story that always focuses on the person: from the prison officers to the volunteers, the teachers, the administrators and the managers of the cooperatives.