Watch The Mark of Cain For Free

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Blistering performances.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Prison life is a dreary subject and Russian prison life even more so, but The Mark of Cain is a film anyone interested in post-communist Russia should view. The documentary features many interviews with Russian prison inmates. Director Alix Lambert examines the changes Russian prison tattoo art has undergone since the fall of communism and winds up vividly capturing both the changes in Russian prison life since the fall of communism, and the problems Russian society faces as it grapples with its communist past. I just watched it last night online at netlix and found it quite riveting. It is easily available to view online.

This is available on DVD from Black Diamond Films - http://www.blackdiamond.co.uk/ or via Amazon (the 2006 DVD from Black Diamond, not the 2007 film starring Matthew McNulty).From the box-blurb - "The Mark of Cain, a feature-length documentary by Alix Lambert, explores the dying art of Russian prison tattoos to offer audiences an understanding of conflict and transition in contemporary Russia. Through intimate interviews that enable the prisoners to talk about their life experiences, body art and living conditions, a powerful story emerges of tension between prisoners of different generations and different social-economic systems. The Mark of Cain documents for the first time the disappearing artistic practice of Russian prison tattoos; further, the project investigates the nature of change in Russia by examining what is happening in the country's prisons."I heard about this film in interviews with David Kronenberg about his new movie "Eastern Promises" - apparently Vigor Mortensson found this documentary and showed it to Kronenberg during the filming, and it became a large influence. It's a nice companion to the Russian Tattoo Encyclopedia volumes by Danzig Baldayev, too.

This is a very good documentary. However trying to find this is a bit difficult. If somehow it could be netflix'd, then people could resurrect this enchanting film about Russian prisons, specifically about Russian tattoo's and their meanings. This is interesting cause a lot of tattoos are religious and/or symbolic but in actuality these tattoos are a story of that individual, a passport to the uncharted criminal underground areas, if you will, of Russia. But more so, this is also a film about the conditions of these prisons, I believe unintentionally.The new film Eastern Promises, due September 21st 2007 was researched by the films star Viggo Mortenson and also recommended this film for those who could find it. Amazon or Ebay is about all I come up with as far as hit. I would be nice if this could be distributed more, for it is a very good documentary by such a newcomer.

Although the primary goal of the documentary is to examine prison tattooing in Russia, it gives the subjects the opportunity to discuss the conditions in the prisons. I thought this was an expertly crafted technique: if Alix Lambert had arrived in Russia and looked to film the deplorable conditions in the prisons, she'd likely have been guided to some "show prison" where prisoners are treated kindly. By examining tattooing, she had the opportunity to see how casually accepted the poor conditions really are.