crossing our top stories at five thirty pm moscow time moscow denounces victor boot sentencing in the u.s. as politically motivated as the russian businessman gets twenty five years behind bars but it was convicted of conspiring to sell weapons to terrorists and kill americans. reports of ongoing violence in syria despite a u.n. ultimatum that both sides must reach its complete cease fire next week president also saying he's already withdrawing troops from certain areas. and french muslims

claim they're being scapegoated in the wake of the deadly shootings and to lose they say they're bearing the brunt of a heavy crackdown on extremism of the president on much. more on those stories in thirty minutes before then that from calm very so the camera on the story of a russian prisoner and his life changing journey to a new life. go on take that sandwich give it to him and stand by. we'll go over the scene a couple of times film director alexei and issues your new movie about prison life he has won several top prizes of film festivals yes that's it the film director and his actors have no expectation of public recognition or fame all they really want is to get away from this dismal scenery as soon as possible and never return for

what it said thank you they call everybody. the film crews artistic freedom is confined to this high security jail petersburg. the actor's camera man and director all serving sentences the serious crime. roll call finished return to your area. all right you'll toss that snowball from here. film studios run by inmates in russian colonies a not just for fun the aim is to rehabilitate prisoners their involvement in filmmaking is meant to help them reform and start a new life a basic camera is the only piece of equipment at the disposal of the prison producers the crew is normally made up of inmates who know how to handle video recording this colony is lucky there is

a professional film director serving his term among them. i mean it comes to the old one american leader once said thinking is the hardest word theory is when you know bored which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. is anyone who has been involved in filmmaking at least once again but will tell you that it's a very exhausting job people. know what the people in the straightforward bagus lines they have it at school and you will all fare questionable existence we were told to some purpose in the. bowl when you least because the teachers overing families slowly and letters from sanish

to brands. of schema for the benefit of the lady. alexei until our last movie forgive me won an award as an international contests a film about prison the director became something of a t.v. personality right. thing as a film is not about a prison camp going to be it's a film about treachery love and human integrity i mean yes eternal truths that stay alive inside and outside prison enjoy to walk around the car of course we can't physically make a film about anything but prison life for the most but that's a different story for the world and. when the prison authorities realize the film directions work so to improve the kohli's image they began to take his work seriously what's new in his i'd like to have two shooting areas and shit ok i'll talk to the chief of the operations section hopefully he can help us aside

from that is everything going according to plan yes valarie cheval of the man in charge of education at the colony is also the chief producer of unthought of the movies it is he who make sure the films shot in this high security camp don't push the limits of what is permitted all members of the crew get together in the colonies clubhouse they want to discuss a new script and congratulate a film director on his success at the film festival and is proud to show off the top prize a gold plated watch or brushes ombudsman collected deprives on our behalf the chief warden gave me the watch and said here is the watch and drawing of what others can't wear such watches but you can inmates are not allowed to keep things made of precious metals here. when he was starting and had a hard time persuading prisoners in his movies they'd only do it for tea and

cigarettes at the meeting the director gives the last piece of advice before filming begin once. valid if you thoughts to disagree. whether it will criminals or law abiding people we're all god's creatures. murderers rapists and drug traffickers make up the bulk of the inmates here each has been sentenced to at least eighty years in prison. has already served five years he was charged with murder after a drunken fight. and pleaded guilty he would have only been sentenced to six years instead of ten but he didn't and charges in court maybe because he truly did not intend to kill anyone hoped to avoid punishment altogether. ninety percent of those who find themselves behind bars try to deny their guilt

avoid punishment all of them say they aren't guilty each inmate has a story that as a rule has little in common with the official verdict what your mates tell each other the films they make a clear cut they contain a plain message about good and evil friend and truth and. finding a woman for a female role in a male colony is a problem but they make an exception for if necessary easily for even a child to take part in his films. have changed i knew. so for the better. it looked and i would say much. has changed. because i've been missing you terribly i've been looking for what happened. yes and now andree you and them to get married.

however. is one of the gods the rules state that she is not to communicate with the inmates but she is ready to risk it because of her love of cinema because i know the city uniform here are helpless to markel the psychological barrier between me and them i'll weepy in some belly until there's on the days when i should like now and not her in so much my can't even then i realize the tide stretched attention. ok let's see if everything is alright from this angle. is the male lead in a movie he has agreed to take part because of the film's parallels with his own life. yuri is serving a sentence for murder he spent six years behind bars with another six to go or peabody come in. come in.

my name is alex see my name is a way. i have a son to he was four years old when i was in prison. now he is ten we haven't seen each other in where little be exactly five years on the first of march. as national drug lord after i got into prison my wife often visited me here she would bring me parcels and circles lasy else. that lasted for two years but then she told me she was seeing another man. will objecting to that would have been stupid on my part she was young and i had another eleven years to serve why should i make her suffer. how old are you. eight. political story. the saddest

thing is that i know of that to my parents i couldn't attend their funerals says my father died the day after the verdict was announced my mother followed him half a year later it's a shame i didn't accompany them on their final journey a fifth of course that my wife has left me or that i still have a long term love to serve are the least of my worries. every inmate dreams about the great hollywood romance is shown in the film but in reality nobody ever comes to see either inmates cobalts off or until all of a lexie is even turned down an offer of large cutie he is merited by his prison filmmaking under such rules inmates are entitled to extra visits from relatives and more parcels soon then you know i don't care about because it's late in this evening i see no point in that. yes wives are allowed to spend more time

with their husbands kim said but i'm not officially married kill. my own no mother no father no grandmother and no grandfather. who would ever come to me. and the almost twenty two year old son whom was born by his first wife he lives in a russian city far from here and he never comes to see his father sometimes and a lot of talks with him over the phone which requires special permission. but it's my fault when i left them our tomb was just a little boy even the thought of that age need a father more than anything else. alexei's daughter victoria is eight years old she was born elsewhere would lock victoria and her mother live in st petersburg they have never come here to see a lex a he abandoned them when his daughter was a year and a half. was

a bit aleksey decided to break those bones he told me she wasn't ready to take responsibility for the child she said the prospect was too much for him it's against him enormously the thought that his life would be entirely changed unbearable i said to him. tory. as for me i want to prove her family some may not care about their relationships not been formalized but i do very much in. this town and our passports testifying to our marriage would have meant a lot to me already as an us said ok but sometimes that's how we parted but after that he got carried away. this is what victoria wrote on a postcard she sent to her father happy valentine's day at

a pub i love you very much. and soon as they inmates get together for a poetry recital. log. on the all the b.s. . load. the loading. on the. old. the. alexandre preside over the meeting nickname leone he's been generally acclaimed is the best poet in the camp his twenty years of life in prison have produced twenty three fake notebooks of poetry there are thousands of verses about love your words were in slow motion people think it should be public it was like

a fish. market something serious you must all get expensive which you make which you. didn't usually. if you seriously because you know what alexander leone off killed seven people in cold blood one of his victims was a woman. culture is that so much of an attribute reason to share power on the market ali in america in the wake of the recent military coup there are growing fears it is africans made plunging to portray apted civil strife. world. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. alexander leone of could hardly be described as

a positive character but film director and on off could not have found some of the more conflicted history for his first documentary alexander is a camp legend has crossed poles with the man in charge of the colonies education department valarie shovel off several times both of find themselves in the same high security prisons shovel of as a prison administrator. as an inmate. some i first saw him a long time ago all of the awfulness of it was back when i was serving in a high security jail in the urals. is a strong willed man. or someone to survive in a russian jail and ensure all of movements from place to place without cracking is nothing to sneeze at. with you i have applied for parole the law allows me to do that. i have already served nineteen

years out of a total term of twenty five years i was thirty six years old when i was arrested and you know i'm almost fifty five which. here the footage is from alexia documentary entitled the point of no return as all of his. this is the one from the convict to direct the shot in the hope that people on the other side of the fence would see the main question of the film is addressed to society do they want his fellow inmate leonel to be set free head of toying. with the question he's asked in the film as alexander imagine yourself walking around town and coming across europe victims' relatives what would be your reaction . frankly talking about this here is pointless i can only hope that they would recognize me after so many years i would rather avoid an encounter with them and

make sure i never cross their paths. each morning alexander goes through a set of exercises of the car in the special forces due to perfect their skills he is a perpetrator by training. to kill during the war in angola he was discharged from the armed forces he went on to make short work of his enemies in the same code. then make claims he eliminated business partners who had betrayed him. to expose the pows more than said the woman who died of the sixty asian i put her to sleep so to speak and the question if you press some points on the human next person will pass out never to wake up again. much of what he says is not true with a lot of preferred a free wheeling lifestyle. well he never sought to employment and instead took part in drinking pouts with shady characters. and it's not that he murdered people as

a result of a brawl was simply he and his drinking companions would make friends with someone and drink with him at his place and then kill him there was a layoff was given the death penalty for his killings he strangled most of his victims with a scar. leo was condemned to die but he was on death row for just two years before president yeltsin introduced a moratorium on capital punishment and nine hundred ninety six. fellow inmates said to me alexander it seems to us that you get life imprisonment i prayed and went to face my fate and when i entered the room and was told i was now in for twenty five years instead of getting the death sentence i felt like i had been reborn if i had been stuck in prison for six years by then so another twenty five years was just

a trifle. i think we wanted to meet relatives of his victims and show to them what sort of personally all of the common. question is whether an inmate can reform . here's a man with nineteen years of confinement behind him a man writing poetry demonstrating loyalty to the administration and abiding by the law. man doing all he can to prove that he deserves a release from here. but then he already saw an act of humanity when his sentence was changed now he wants another of course is that the right thing to do. i'm still in two minds and that's why we wanted to meet the relatives of his victims to ask them. but the plan didn't come to pass therefore i've been telling undrawn of that his film is incomplete. because. the court turned down the last piece of parole that he has to serve another five years to whittle away the time he acts in

films is working on a roll in and the lawless production. is there hard to. look around the tea room. each day someone falls in fire. hundred convicts come here to the colonies industrial section timber. and make plumbing fittings clothing all souvenirs. all of it will be going tomorrow outside the prison. most of those who do the hard physical work here see filmmaking is a way of shutting the routine laid out the scope society. they maintain that the public health side is fences takes little interest in films about prison life alexie on top of concedes that his movies annoys most he says what.

the hell well i wouldn't go so far as to describe it as a live action film you know it's just fooling around that's all there is to. prison slang and cheap special effects don't help his cause for instance in the movie. the only friend of the main character is a talking cat. andrei. was. yeah it's me catch on so much. like the chill i run in while here. i see you are scared of your own shadow john's you share a son michael your cat. this young man works sound engineer at a small theater in some he just he is twenty no he's old he left security prison only a year ago after six years inside he had been sentenced to eight and of course he

is for drug trafficking while in prison without parole of a major prize winning phil was one of the main factors that led to his early release. it was prison that paved the way to this theater to be more. sacked it was a legacy a drone. that had not been for the film we made together i wouldn't be here now that's for sure that film festival was chaired by the theatres artistic director he liked our film and gave alexa his business card saying give me a call when you get out of there it so happened that i was the first to get out. was the camera man and the last production skills he learned in prison his new drug his ambition now is to make movies. and filming costs money and fully realizing his talent is still beyond his means. making a film in prison wasn't much of

a problem the guys didn't need much broader income motivate them and they were only too willing to accept t.v. and cigarettes as pay. and nowadays all the people working with director alex am a quite young his new camera man is twenty three years old i was the same age when he was put behind us both fellows were convicted for the same crime drug trafficking. i. cuban rap. is yet another man serving a sentence for drug crimes alexei i asked him to compose a soundtrack for his new film the convicted film director on the run off doesn't care much about whether anybody outside needs his films he hopes that his films help leo and other young men learn new skills when they are released the director's

wish is that they realize they are stronger more worthwhile things in this life than drugs. i yearn for that day when i'm released on parole having lost. there are still three years two months to go i thought. you know i want to return home so very much. rest is her car struck so i work hard and try to be on my best behavior here launch it's set in order come to think of it the two years i spent in this colony of taught me to manage my time properly in our choices but i've also been learning new skills from the other inmates and sold through the people here know how to teach. my son he's a successful teaching the course one day i told my wife ok i know what they do until senior outs on the list i mean drugs and oh let's stuff via google for the

name of islam and she said well you know i trust him so much i can't imagine him doing anything wrong more than i feel the same way i think cartoon want to fall into the trap. seems come to realize that he was a bad father to his children he left them with their mother at a time when they needed a father most of all he'll be fifty when he is set free in five years time after that he will have the urn his children's love again. some of the thought she was the south sufficient person and live in a trouble free life. i think he has since taken a long hard look at his life. sometimes they just reeks people to make him realize that time is running out. just in that my son was to see me when i left.

the gosh i need to do so much to get chopped. wood this prison term. i missed so much. alexia off or sees his first guest in four years. said lola his college mate brings him a gift he treasures most of all memories three hours creep away unnoticed as they recall highlights of their college days going to the seaside during the holidays and cutting class to watch new films.

alexi decides to send the watch he won for his film forgive me to his son. there's a new batch of conflict. there. mark one two. i i. i. i. i am i i i i i

i i i i i.