Staatsinrichting 3/13 uip r.t.

The women who are imprisoned in penitentiary 3/13 UIP R.T. in Tajikistan all have their individual histories and tragedies. Most of them are not criminals in the ordinary sense. They have been convicted, for example, to keep their minor son out of jail or because a friend of theirs took a jogging suit from a store without paying for it, and they did not have the money to bribe the police. Many of them also have to take care of one or more children within the prison walls. A lot of their offences have to do with poverty and social deprivation; the prison warders, however, still think in the old communist way and believe that these women should be re-educated during their stay in the state penitentiary. The walls are covered with didactic pamphlets and a whole array of psychiatrists is present to ‘cure’ the women’s ‘mental aberrations’. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)