Prisoner

Sammi, Henrik, Miriam, and Gert are prison officers and colleagues in an old, worn-down Danish prison. Their work environment is raw and hostile, and their respective lives outside the prison walls are filled with conflict, secrets, and loneliness for very different reasons. Secrets, that will soon resurface and have great consequences not only for the four prisoners, but for everyone inside and outside the walls. The story of PRISONER unfolds over a three-month period and kicks off when The Prison and Probation Service is investigating the prison where the four officers work. The prison will ultimately close unless they manage to correct the bad press, hierarchy and drug trade dominating the workplace. The prison launches a new zero-tolerance policy so the prison can make the cut. The newly graduated Sammi sees the management’s campaign as an opportunity to prove himself as a skilled officer and colleague, but the campaign reveals the internal disagreement between the officers. Henrik and the other pragmatic officers think that the prison is best off by accepting the prisoner’s hierarchy and keeping the status quo. Miriam and the more dutiful guards have always been frustrated by the strong prisoner’s power regime and believe it’s time to get things in order. Gert is the warden and is trapped between the demands of the management and the reality of the officers. Sammi, who is eager to prove his worth, meets a childhood friend among the inmates and they start a collaboration: The friend snitches on his fellow inmates, and soon the searches start to pay off - and the power balance in the prison is shifting. The price of the drugs goes up, debt is being paid with violence, the tacit agreement falls apart, and the pressure is boiling. One of the prison gangs blackmail Miriam into smuggling for them because of her son’s dubious past, an inmate dies during the use of force, and Henrik’s big secret threatens his private life. The inmates are looking for the snitch, and the officers are looking for the corrupt colleague, and just before the fate of the prison is decided, it finally boils over into a violent climax.