Bespredel is a drama about life of a typical Soviet correction facility. As it usually goes, there is a complex system of power distribution: the warden and the enforcers constitute formal authority, but the only thing they actually do is allow the most hardcore criminal element to establish their own ironfisted rule – as long as the dominant role of the overseers is acknowledged, and the rest of the populus is kept under control. Kalgan is not a career criminal, but he manages to gain some authority due to his strength and relatively autonomous position; he is then presented with a choice, and caves at the hope of possible early release to become one of the foremen. But it all changes when the real powers that be decide to degrade a person (the Philatelist) who got to prison pretty much accidentally, for collecting and buying mail stamps, and who was too intelligent, too pure, to withstand actual assault. After Kalgan fails to protect him, the climate in the facility changes so drastically, it threatens to shatter the mere principles of its existence.

Bespredel as a term relates to the situation when the rulers start using violence not just as a means of management, but for the pleasure of absolute power and without taking consequences into consideration.

Except for the issue of abusive language use (it’s a common thing in reality, but not in the movie), the depiction of a russian prison and its practices is very plausible; as far as I know, it remained pretty much unchanged since the movie was conceived and realized. It is really a place that would either crush or dehumanize the absolute majority of those who get there, which is determined by the system itself, by the way it has developed over the decades of soviet rule. The film tells about the resulting situation truthfully; basically, it’s the portrayal of hell in the form of a prison, because everything about this story is horrible.

At that, there are no physiological details, so it’s not gore; all the conflicts are shown mostly from the psychological standpoint. The production wasn’t spoiled with a lot of funding, but in this particular case it’s probably a good thing, because that poorness resonates with the story setting very well. Besides, the cast is quite great, and their acting is very good quality.

It’s a powerful movie that may be hard to watch, because it not only depicts the cruelties of our times quite vividly, it also takes a glance at the absence of justice as the fundamental principle of the universe: notwithstanding the fact that the underlying conflict crosses into the open form, we understand that ultimately nothing would change. Not there, anyway.

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