Feature film “Sing Sing” about everyday life in prison: Playing innocent behind bars

Berlin taz | The final scene is right at the beginning: Divine G. stands on the stage, gives a fiery, poetic speech, applause, bows. Excited chatter in the wings, the actors put on green shirts, line up in rows and are taken to their cells. The theater group from Sing Sing prison in the small town of Ossining, about 50 kilometers north of New York City in the USA, has performed Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream."

There really is a theater group in Sing Sing prison . "Divine G," whose real name is John Whitfield, also really exists. The same goes for a number of the other actors, who are male, since it is a men's prison. Director Greg Kwedar ("Transpecos" and "Jockey") brought former inmates who were involved in the theater project in Sing Sing to the big screen. He called the film "Sing Sing" - like the prison.

The plot is quickly told: Divine G., apparently innocent behind bars, although he cannot prove it, is the unofficial leader and star of the theater group. As a writer with acting experience, he writes or adapts plays, directs the others, and often takes on the lead role himself.

Because inmates come and go, the ensemble changes all the time. After the "Midsummer Night's Dream," the group is looking for new players. Divine G. suggests Divine Eye, a drug dealer who also does shady business in prison. The others are skeptical. "He always wants to save people," says one. But because Divine Eye can actually quote Shakespeare, he is allowed to play.

He repeatedly clashes with Divine G., snatches a role from him, and refuses to take advice from him. He disrupts rehearsals because he cannot get rid of the behavior he learned in prison ("Why are you walking behind me? Don't do that! We don't do that in the yard!"). But over time he softens up - and ends up becoming Divine G.'s close friend. At this point it becomes clear that the story is Hollywood-esque in the best sense of the word. Without slipping into kitsch.

In the real world, sympathy for prison inmates is rather limited, as comments on social media show: they are "there for a reason", the sentences are still far too lenient, complaints are exaggerated, after all "this is not a hotel".

For a Hollywood story about prisoners, this means that sympathy is easier to generate when the protagonist is innocent. You could almost say that the filmmakers made it easy for themselves - but the story is based on true events: John "Divine G" Whitfield was innocent. As were many other black people in the USA. A reality that is discussed far too rarely.

This is also unusual: a Hollywood film with black people in the main roles - and an almost exclusively black cast. This is also due to the reality of American prisons. Only one main role is played by a white actor - that of director Brent Buell (skillfully played by Paul Raci - "Sound of Metal"), who also really exists, and who regularly went to prison for years to direct the theater project.

John Divine G. Whitfield is played by Colman Domingo, who has a similar background to Whitfield: He is not only an actor, but also a dancer, playwright, theater director and singer. He became known in 2015 for his role as Victor Strand in the series "Fear the Walking Dead", and in 2020 he played bandleader Cutler in the Oscar-winning feature film "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" .

His outstanding performance in "Sing Sing" has earned Domingo an Oscar nomination for Best Actor at this year's Academy Awards, which will be presented in Los Angeles on March 2. The film is also nominated in two other categories: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Song ("Like a Bird").

Through the medium of theater - or rather, theater rehearsals - the audience is introduced to the small and big dreams and fears of the inmates. A fellow actor tells how he told his wife for the first time that he loved her - and how much he misses her now that she died.

In quiet scenes, in which the images say more than words, you also get an insight into everyday life in prison: Divine Eye in his cell, where he hoards dozens of cans of food. The thick envelope that decides whether Divine G.'s request for clemency is accepted or not. The look of apology that Divine Eye gives to a young fellow inmate whom he had previously put through the wringer.

How time passes in the otherwise monotonous prison routine can be seen from the number of theater productions. There is a new performance every six months. Divine G. receives a final round of applause nine times before he is finally released.