From I'm Still Here to Cabildo 71, Maeve Jinkings pivots to high-stakes escape drama
Maeve Jinkings is ditching quiet convent life for a daring breakout where sisterhood fuels the suspense — and survival might be the only prayer that gets answered.
In Cabildo 71, Maeve Jinkings isn’t plotting the breakout — she’s on the other side of the bars. The Brazilian star plays one of the nuns tasked with guarding a convent-turned-prison in 1970s Uruguay, where political detainees weigh whether brains and nerve can beat locked doors and armed patrols.
The film is based on a real escape pulled off by a prisoner known as La Parda, who fled the Cabildo convent-prison with 12 others during Mass in March 1970. A year later she was caught and returned to a far tougher lockup, where whispers of another attempt began. Director Victoria Pena Echeverría threads the jailbreak suspense through the sisters’ personal lives too, centering the volatile bond between La Parda and her twin, Lucía, and leaning into everyday ingenuity over action- movie bravado.
The story is inspired by a 1970 convent-prison escape pulled off during Mass.
Who’s involved
The movie is directed by Victoria Pena Echeverría and produced by Monarca Film’s Eugenia Olascuaga, who has emphasized casting Uruguayan talent as the eight central Tupamara prisoners. Alongside Jinkings’ turn as a prison nun, the ensemble features Uruguayan actresses:
- Graciela Ingold — part of the prisoners ensemble
- Carolina Genoni — part of the prisoners ensemble
- Camila Parard — part of the prisoners ensemble
- Renata Denevi — part of the prisoners ensemble
- Luche Bolten — part of the prisoners ensemble
- Matilde Colacce — part of the prisoners ensemble
Jinkings last hit the festival circuit with I’m Still Here, which premiered at Venice in 2024. Cabildo 71 keeps her on the art-house track, but with a stark historical thriller bent.
The project was recently selected for Ventana Sur’s Proyecta Co-Production Forum in Montevideo, a platform for Latin American films courting partners and distribution. U.S. release plans haven’t been announced.