Russia’s Toughest Prisons

After two years of negotiations, a National Geographic Channel film crew from Seattle was finally granted access inside the infamous Russian prison system. For the first time ever, Western cameras were allowed inside 3 maximum security facilities: the legendary Vladimir Central, Prison Camp NK-17 in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and the highest security prison in Europe, “Black Dolphin.” Shot in December 2010, in the middle of a -50 degree Siberian winter, the film interweaves personal stories of inmates from all 3 prisons: Dmitry and George, two first-time offenders sentenced to lengthy terms for minor drug offenses who must share a room with convicted murders; Artur Galchin, sentenced to 25 years for killing his wife and brother-in-law in an alcohol-fueled rage; and most notably, Vladimir Nikolayev, a confessed cannibal who ate the flesh of two men and is serving a life sentence in Russia’s most extreme penitentiary. Produced by local company PSG Films, Russia’s Toughest Prisons shows the human, and often inhuman, sides of Russia’s legendary prison system.