Behind Prison Walls

25 to Life(en)

An urban drama about a parolee trying to be a better father to his daughter as he struggles for perspective in his life.

Law Abiding Citizen(en)

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

The Big Bird Cage(en)

Women rebel against slave labor in a filthy jungle prison where they feed sugar cane to a mechanical maw.

Andersonville(en)

This lengthy docudrama records the harrowing conditions at the Confederacy's most notorious prisoner-of-war camp. The drama unfolds through the eyes of a company of Union soldiers captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor, VA, in June 1864, and shipped to the camp in southern Georgia. A private, Josiah Day, and his sergeant try to hold their company together in the face of squalid living conditions, inhumane punishments, and a gang of predatory fellow prisoners called the Raiders.

Levity(en)

Manuel Jordan is a man who is free after serving 23 years for killing a teenager during an attempted robbery. After nearly two decades of staring at his victim's face on a newspaper clipping in his cell, the newly paroled man seeks redemption. Instead, redemption—in the form of a mysterious minister and two needy women— finds him.

The Condemned(en)

With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners. In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life. A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to. (Storyville)

Kiss of Death(en)

An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.

A Prophet(fr)

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

Jackson County Jail(en)

A young woman stumbles into a nightmare land of hijacking and humiliation while driving cross-country from California to New York.

No Man of God(en)

The complicated relationship that formed between the FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier and serial killer Ted Bundy during Bundy's final years on death row.

Harvest Moon(mn)

Tulgaa returns to his native village to care for his dying stepfather, honouring his remaining commitments by offering to lend a hand with the summer harvest. But upon witnessing Tulgaa’s clumsy first attempts, Tuntuulei, a sassy 10-year-old boy, takes it upon himself to school the city slicker on the grassland ways. Despite getting off on the wrong foot, the two soon find common ground and form a delicate bond that will transform their lives.

South Central(en)

During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.

Down by Law(en)

A disc jockey, a pimp and an Italian tourist escape from jail in New Orleans.

Für den unbekannten Hund(de)

Dark Blue Almost Black(es)

Jorge is a young man whose plans for the future are put on hold when his father has a stroke. For seven years, he diligently nurses his father and works as a janitor while studying part time to get a business degree.When Natalia, his childhood crush, returns from a stint studying abroad, Jorge begins to yearn for something better. He is desperate to find a new and better job, but finds that no one will hire him because he has experience only as a janitor. Antonio, Jorge’s older brother, soon to be released from jail, is an opportunist who has never gotten along with their father. In prison, at a theater workshop, Antonio meets Paula, a beautiful young woman in jail on drug charges. Paula has a problem because she flirted with another inmate's boyfriend.

Veer-Zaara(hi)

Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh, a pilot in the Indian air force, rescues the stranded Zaara, a woman from Pakistan, following a bus accident, and their lives are forever bound.

The Edge of Heaven(de)

The lives of six German-Turkish immigrants are drawn together by circumstance: An old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.

The Real McCoy(en)

Karen McCoy is released from prison with nothing but the clothes on her back. Before being incarcerated Karen was the bank robber of her time, but now she wishes for nothing more than to settle down and start a new life. Unfortunately between a dirty parole officer, old business partners, and an idiot ex-husband she will have to do the unthinkable in order to save her son.

Revolver(it)

An Italian prison official's wife is kidnapped, and the kidnappers demand that a notorious prisoner be released in order for the man to get his wife back. He gets the man released - but then kidnaps him himself, in order to ensure that the man's colleagues don't kill his wife. Enraged, the gang sets out to free their compatriot and kill the man who took him.

Farewell, Home Sweet Home(fr)

Nicholas is the eldest son of a wealthy suburban family, whose businesswoman mother makes deals from a helicopter and has an affair with her business partner. His cheerful, alcoholic father, on the other hand, is reduced to a prisoner in his room with his devoted dog and electric train set. Unbeknownst to his parents, Nicholas works as a window cleaner and dish washer in a Parisian cafe. He is also in love with the daughter of another cafe's owner, who, however, has an abusive boyfriend. One night, Nicholas sneaks a few drunken drifters into his family wine cellar and his father unexpectedly takes a liking to the stranger.