The Mark of Cain

The criminal tattooing subculture of Russian prisons is the subject of this no-nonsense 2000 documentary. A subject that was mostly unknown in America until it was covered in last year’s David Cronenberg crime drama Eastern Promises, Mark of Cain features interviews with Russian prisoners who talk about their tattoo-covered bodies, which serve as maps of sorts to each inmate’s history, crime and sentence. Most fascinating are the angry older inmates who dislike the younger generation’s buying of tattoos rather than earning them.

Shelf Talk: It’s too bad The Mark of Cain wasn’t issued a few months back so it could have capitalized on the December DVD release of Eastern Promises, which has since fallen from the rental and sell-through charts. A blurb from Cronenberg on Cain’s cover—both he and Eastern Promises star Viggo Mortenson reportedly saw the film in preparation for their own—describes it as “beautiful, scary and heartbreaking,” which should intrigue those who aren’t inclined to pick up documentary titles.