The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Anna Herrmann, Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Clean Break, Sabrina Mahtani from Women Beyond Walls, Lorraine Maher, the facilitator featured in the film and producer Polly Creed.

Directed by Emmy-nominated Sophie Compton (Another Body) and BAFTA Breakthrough Daisy-May Hudson (Half Way, Lollipop), HOLLOWAY is a profound, emotionally charged and visually striking film set entirely inside the now-demolished Holloway Prison in London, once the largest women’s prison in Europe.

Six women return to the abandoned building of Holloway Prison to take part in a women’s circle. Sharing some of the most intimate experiences of their lives, they unravel what led each of them to prison, building an eye-opening portrait of failing systems, childhood trauma and discovering their extraordinary capacity to heal through sisterhood. Formally daring and collaboratively made, HOLLOWAY is the result of an innovative, trauma-informed production model developed with its contributors, who are recognised as lived experience experts. Their input shaped every stage of the film, from development through to editing, ensuring the women’s voices remain central throughout. This co-creative process has been recognised by academics from Middlesex University as a “blueprint” for ethical, trauma-informed storytelling.

“radical and emotionally devastating” (Cineuropa),

“raw and essential” (Film Carnage)

“a vital act of storytelling” (Loud and Clear)