ALONE IN FOUR WALLS

Directed By Alexandra Westmeier

Review By Kim Jindra

The beautiful camera work by Inigo Westmeier in ALONE IN FOUR WALLS makes a Russian juvenile delinquent center in the Urals look more like a desirable boarding school than a detention center.  And the inmates look more like cherubs than criminals.  

Kudos to the Russian authorities for giving filmmaker Alexandra Westmeier what seems to be unlimited access to the facility.  We watch the boys get haircuts and have teeth pulled.  We are with them when they roll out of bed, roll up their blankets and scrub the floors.  We are also privy to their school lessons and their
job training.  And we hear them cry in bed at night.  It is hard to reconcile these
polite young boys, all under the age of 14, with crimes ranging from stealing pickles to murder.  Westmeier does a great job of reeling in the audience.  She wants us to like the kids.  And I did. 

I also wanted to find excuses for their behavior and in some cases you could point to unemployment or alcohol but not every time.  In fact, some of the most heinous crimes were actions of boys with a relatively normal, albeit, poor home life.  Their parents seemed like parents everywhere.  

Russian authorities offer the kids good medical care, a first for some of them, a plain, but steady diet and a strict regimen in hopes of turning them from criminals into productive members of  society.   I found myself rooting for the boys and believing they would   take advantage of  their  second chance.  But then the credits rolled and I realized that the  recidivism  for  juveniles in Russia is much like it  is here.  Still, I hope the  boys we got to know in this film beat the odds.  I hope the Westmeiers  do a follow up in a few years.