The Condemned plot
"If You've Killed Once, You'll Kill Again"
In the middle of Russia, in a forest bigger than Germany, a seven-hour drive from the nearest city, is Federal Penal Colony No. 56. In winter the temperature drops to minus forty. 260 men are serving their sentences here, all convicted of murder. After hard negotiations, Nick Read and Mark Franchetti managed to gain access to this closed world, and filmed the prisoners' daily lives with care and an eye for detail. In the bluish light of the taiga, Reid filmed the cells and drawn bodies, accompanied by the sound of slamming shutters, bars and locks. In the heaviest ward, the inmates live alone in bare cells measuring five square meters, with only an hour of airing a day. In another department, groups of men live in a more homely situation. It is not the isolation, but the mutual pecking order that is the biggest challenge. In more than candid interviews, the men talk about their crime and punishment. How do you avoid going crazy in such a place?