Kresty, de hoop sterft als laatste

Portrait of a photogenic antiquated prison in St. Petersburg, some say the most densely populated one in Europe. In the most wretched circumstances, the 'garbage of the people', in one prisoner's words, is discarded here; a few men on eight square metres. During a guided tour, a female psychiatrist says they 'deviate from the norm'. Perhaps she refers to the inmate who says he has been detained as an innocent man for thirty years and turns to a priest in vain. The priest is not impressed and asks him: Are you a saint or a sinner? The first, the prisoner answers, and he is told that saints just have to suffer a lot. The prison director is waiting for money to renovate the damp, dark and unheated affair. He keeps his faith, because, he claims, hope is the last to die.