The Mark of Cain

The Language of Russian Criminal Tattoos

Sailing ships, stars, angels and executioners, THE MARK OF CAIN chronicles the vanishing practice and language of Russian criminal tattoos. Recalling the prison writings of Solzhenitsyn or Dostoevsky, Lambert's harrowingly beautiful and penetrating study served as inspiration for David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.

Captured in some of Russia's most notorious prisons, including the fabled White Swan, the film traces the animus of the flowers of this carnal art by way of the brutality of it's origins: the penitentiary and the criminal environment. The film focuses on tattoos in order to interrogate other issues, ranging from prison reform to biological warfare conspiracy theories to, most significantly, the country's shift, in the late '90s and early aughts, towards oligarchic capitalism.

Nominated for a Truer Than Fiction Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.