Announced the date of the premiere of documentaries “Vladimir Central” and “Butyrka”

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The KION online cinema has announced the exclusive premiere of the documentaries Butyrka and Vladimir Central, which tell about the oldest penitentiary institutions in Russia. Both tapes will be available on the service from April 27. The project continues the story started by the famous film “Crosses” by the Ostrov studio, the first Russian documentary project acquired for international screening by the Netflix platform.

Two new feature-length documentaries focus on the Butyrka Detention Facility, also known as Butyrka Prison or Butyrka, and Vladimir Central, a Russian prison for especially dangerous criminals in the city of Vladimir. The directors of the project are Sergey Popov and Yulia Bobkova (Ostrov studio).

The creators continue to explore the history of Russian prisons built in the 19th century by order of Catherine II. As in “Crosses”, prisons are considered here as a “state within a state” with its own rules, laws and customs, philosophy. Two new films “Stories of Russian Prisons” are an attempt to convey the atmosphere that prevails behind a high fence with barbed wire.

Both prisons are distinguished by their unique architecture, and their history is connected with the history of Russia itself. So, for example, in Butyrka, the Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev awaited his execution until 1775. One of the towers of the prison castle is still named after him. Other prisoners at Butyrka include Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Mayakovsky and others. The film crew visits the pre-trial detention center, which divides the life of those who are kept in it into “before” and “after”. Viewers will see the cells of prisoners, the wall of memory of the victims of repression, the office that belonged to Beria, the life of the inhabitants of the prison: from working in the kitchen, warehouse, library, workshops to rehearsing the play based on Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and watching TV together.