
Behind Bars: Litla Hraun, Iceland - Prison at the End of the World
Iceland markets itself on waterfalls and geysers, but drug seizures around Reykjavik have nearly doubled in recent years, and the people caught end up at Litla Hraun, the country's oldest and highest-security prison. Around eighty inmates live behind steel doors under constant camera surveillance, among them Marco, a 43-year-old Croatian arrested with seven kilograms of cocaine and facing up to twelve years, who finds a brief escape from thinking about his distant family in the prison's metal workshop. Ingo, 23, serving eighteen years for violent crimes, spends most of his time locked in his cell instead. Guard Harpa, unarmed like the rest of the staff, has worked the wing for sixteen years and walks through the morning routine of unlocking cells under strict protocol. A late-night search after guards find drugs inside the facility turns up something the staff did not expect. The film mixes inmate and officer interviews with observational footage of daily routines inside the facility.