Prison Alphabet is a 13-part series by Russian filmmaker Andrey Silvestrov that takes viewers inside the walls of Russia's vast penitentiary system, one of the world's largest. Forty ex-inmates, ranging from political prisoners to officials and thieves, detail their varied experiences behind bars.
Interviewees include Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's younger brother, Oleg Navalny; Pussy Riot musician Maria Alyokhina; former Yukos oil company executive Vladimir Pereverzin; civil activist Konstantin Kotov; and Uzbek political prisoner Bakhrom Khamroyev.
The 13 episodes evoke the Russian penal system's corruption and brutality, but also reveal its informal code of behavior and its nearly 500,000 inmates' defiant insistence on survival.
Prison vocabulary and customs have permeated ordinary Russian life. To illustrate that connection, each episode is centered around one prison word and introduces viewers to prison slang.