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SXSW Film Review: Exodus (Nimco Sheikhaden, 2025)

Posted on
10 Mar 2025
by
Paul

What is life like after prison? What does rehabilitation truly mean? And is the justice system truly just? These are just some of the big questions tackled in Nimco Sheikhaden’s Exodus as she examines the stories of two recently released ex-convicts who are trying to get on with their lives and start again.

Exodus follows two main protagonists over the course of its 35 minute runtime, revealing the hardships that Trinity Copeland and Assia Serrano have to contend with following each woman’s release from prison under the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, a 2019 law designed to give some lenience and reduce the sentences of abuse survivors. In theory, it’s a law which should help people to move on and truly begin their lives anew, but as Serrano states at one point, getting released isn’t a magical end to all of her problems, it’s simply the start of new problems. Upon her release after 17 years in prison, Serrano immediately faced deportation, something she sees as being “like another prison” because she can’t be with her children.

Trinity Copeland also faces some family-related issues upon release, but the distance between Copeland and her family is less geographical and more interpersonal – the strained relationship with her mother, who she resented for not being there for her when she was younger (Copeland killed her abusive father while still a teenager), continues upon her release, with Copeland continuing to hold a grudge.

Seeing Serrano ache to be reunited with her children, or watching Copeland shortly after her release getting so excited for relatively mundane things like seeing a bus, ordering McNuggets, or using a mirror that’s not all scratched up, it’s hard not to empathize with them. While Exodus definitely raises some interesting questions on the state of the American justice system, it never judges these women or dwells too much on the detail of their crimes. Rather, its true strength lies in the human quality of these stories.

PrevPreviousConcert Review: Warmduscher, March 4, The Garrison
NextSXSW Review: Lassy-Eskola: Nordic Stew, John Fogerty, untitled (halo), March 11Next

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