Experimentum Crucis (1995)

Name: Experimentum Crucis
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2008-10-29T20:56:39+01:00
Rating: 3.5

Documentary | 52 minutes

3,50 1 votes

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Genre: Documentary

Duration: 52 minuten

Alternative titles: Experiment with the Cross / Jongenshel in Kazachstan

Country: Kazakhstan

Directed by: Vladimir Tyulkin

IMDb score: 7,5 (56)

Releasedate: 14 March 1995

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

Experimentum Crucis plot

In Russia, boys aged 12 to 16 are sentenced to years in prison for often minor offenses in remote prison camps. They are mentally and physically drilled and terrorized; is it not by guards, but by fellow inmates. The older, stronger guys dominate the younger, weaker ones. It is impossible to escape as the guards shoot at anyone who flees. Some children are so desperate that they intentionally injure themselves so that they end up in the infirmary. Other children cling to prison life because they have no faith that the outside world is better. Popov used the video camera as an aid in conversations - it proved beneficial for the prisoner - and then discovered that as an outsider he was able to portray the brutal conditions in the penal camp. Guards and inmates get used to him constantly walking around with a camera.