THE MARK OF CAÏN

A somewhat rambling documentary on a fascinating topic, The Mark of Caïn takes us deep into the Russian prison system to unlock the some of the secrets behind the art of Russian convict tattoos. A sort of storytelling, these tattoos can be "read" in a way that one can tell a prisoner's whole history, anywhere from how long he has been in the system and what crimes he committed, to his status of respect among his fellow cellmates.

One of the more interesting stories is about how prisoners of a certain era of the Soviet regime would tattoo Marx, Stalin, and Lenin's profiles across their chests, to guarantee that they would never be executed by a firing squad—you see, you could never shoot at the image of the founding fathers.

The old school prisoners would chastise the young punks of the new regime. The younger men, coming from the new capitalistic society, would simply pay good money to have tattoos of high status emblazoned on their bodies, without earning them rightfully, causing much disdain from the older prisoners. The art is slowly dying away, losing symbolism and respect.

The Mark of Caïn also goes on a tangent of giving a rare inside look at the harsh prison system, showing how it is practically in worse condition (not to mention more crowded) than it was in the infamously cruel Soviet regime. This is extremely interesting, as was a visit to a women's prison, but it felt like the film was trying to cover too much, and was straying from its theme. Though the footage is fascinating, The Mark of Caïn may have been better served by being split into a couple more focused films. Despite this flaw, the topic is still extremely intriguing, and The Mark of Caïn is certainly worth a look.