"Stop it, Andrei, I beg you!"

"I love you! Goodbye, Tanya!"

The latest effort from Russian-American film director Michael Shur exposes the harsh reality behind the walls of two of Russia's most notorious prisons.

Unique in its ability to penetrate the Russian penal system, the film presents personal testimonies of death row prisoners, exposing the horrendous treatment and living conditions of the mentally ill in the Butyrskaya Prison in Moscow.

The footage for Hostages of Death was shot in places inaccessible to the public and captured with a hidden camera. Also, we use police source footage of a revolt at Kresty prison in St. Petersburg.

The film also includes interviews with:
· Irwin Weil, Northwestern University Professor in Russian and Russian Literature
· A. Mikhailov, Former Head of the KGB Press Services
· Colonel G. Oreshkin, Head of Butyrskaya Prison
· S. Sesetsky, Head of the psychiatric department of Butyrskaya Prison
· I. Matveyenko, Psychiatrist at Butyrskaya Prison