Image caption In the television reality show, 12 former prisoners live in a dacha in the Moscow region.
The Russian entertainment channel Peretz is launching a reality show in October called Gentlemen in the Dacha, the participants of which will be former prisoners. The name of the show comes from the title famous film 1971 "Gentlemen of Fortune", music from which is also heard in the television project.
“Investigators didn’t believe them, judges often didn’t listen to them, and on October 15 the whole country will see them,” this is how the Peretz TV channel announces the start of a new project.
Filming of the first season of "Gentlemen in the Dacha" took place in Odessa with the participation of Ukrainian prisoners who were released. After the success of the show on Russian TV, the Peretz channel began filming the second season - already at a dacha near Moscow.
The channel's management intends to help solve the problem of socialization of prisoners after their release from prison. This problem, according to experts, is extremely acute for Russian society.
Most of the project participants admit that it is almost impossible to find a job with a criminal record, and in their everyday life in freedom they are faced exclusively with negative attitudes towards themselves.
“Gentlemen in the Country” is not a game or a show, says general manager TV channel "Peretz" Dmitry Troitsky, - You will understand this as soon as you find out the stories of the participants. Rather, our project can be called an intensive rehabilitation program. And, of course, a test - a test of freedom."
Without murderers and rapists
From the many applications received to participate in the project, the organizers, based on the results of the casting, selected 12 people, the total prison sentence of each of whom exceeds three years.
Most of the "gentlemen" were in prison for theft and robbery. According to the author of the idea and format of the program, Alla Lipovetskaya, they decided not to take murderers and rapists into the project.
Life in prison and drugs
Relations in the zone are, of course, changing. Now all the concepts have gone away, now the wallet works - whoever is richer sleeps against the wall. At least some commissions have started visiting, parent days have appeared when relatives can stop by.
You can communicate and maintain relationships with loved ones over the phone, even though the police themselves bring in the phones. You no longer need to write letters to email that doesn’t work. You send a letter, it takes 5 weeks, and it may not come back.
Drugs are brought in again by the administration, people in uniform. Parents spend a lot, risking themselves. I know many cases when mothers of prisoners brought drugs and they themselves were given 10-15 years. The sons simply say that they lost the game, and they must give them drugs, otherwise they will kill them, but they themselves simply use them.
Statistics in the zone are kept, reports are made every year. For example, it is said that 1,700 kg of heroin were seized in the zone during the year, although in reality much more was seized. They confiscate and distribute them themselves.
Eduard Shcheglov, former prisoner, participant in the "Gentlemen in the Dacha" project
"Of course, we were afraid of murderers, maniacs, rapists, like everyone else ordinary people. We didn't know how to manage their emotions in case they got out of control. Our participants are not in prison, and are in a fairly relaxed state. Since we did not understand how people who were able to commit a serious crime think, think and react, we decided not to experiment with this group of prisoners,” the general producer of the project tells a BBC correspondent.
In a new reality show, former prisoners get the chance not only to start their lives over, but also the opportunity to work with professional psychologists, lawyers, entrepreneurs, actors and even fitness instructors.
During their stay at the dacha, the project participants studied Russian and English languages, rules traffic, and also visited nursing homes, orphanages and animal shelters. Filming of the reality show, which took place in the summer, took about a month.
“We were all there like plasticine, they began to sculpt us, they began to rebuild us into new life to show what it is like in reality,” one of the project participants, Eduard Shcheglov, told the BBC.
The leader of the project, writer Anatoly Barbacar, who in the past was one of the most successful card sharpers Soviet Union, he himself paid with freedom for his actions, after which he decided to abandon his old craft.
"It's like it started running in my head new code, who helped me find a new calling and gain family happiness. What happened to me gives me confidence: everyone can change. I want to launch this “code of freedom” in the participants of our project,” admits Barbacar.
According to the reality show host, it is the negative attitude towards former prisoners in society that makes them break the law again and again. Statistics show that about 60% of Russian prisoners return to the “zone” after some time.
Repeat offender "Wild"
All participants in the “Gentlemen at the Dacha” project are repeat offenders who have served in prison from two to fifteen terms. Native Smolensk region Eduard Shcheglov, nicknamed “Wild,” spent a total of 7 years and 6 months in prison for fighting causing bodily harm and fraud.
“I didn’t get into trouble myself. It so happened that I stood up for a disabled person, then for a girl who they wanted to rape. I couldn’t pass by in these cases,” says Shcheglov in an interview with the BBC Russian Service. “At the trial I They asked why I didn’t call the police? And the police are 17 kilometers away. I’ll call the police and what should I do? Stand near the entrance and film how he will rape?
“Wild” went to the television project out of despair - since April, after his last release, he had been without work.
“Wherever I tried to get a job, it’s very difficult with a criminal record. There are applications in which the line “criminal record” is written. Many don’t write, but why lie, I wrote “convicted” everywhere. They told me that they would call me back in a couple of days, but for For the 2-3 months that I was free, nothing happened,” says Eduard Shcheglov.
According to a participant in “Gentlemen in the Country,” who, after filming the reality show, still got a job as a mechanic, the attitude towards former prisoners in society must change.
"Firstly, it is necessary that society does not reject people so much, at least takes a closer look at people. I am not saying that we are all pure, there are some animals that I would never let out. Such people will never change their views, their more than half, I would say, but many are in prison for no reason at all - because they were driven into a corner,” admits Shcheglov.
The last time “Wild” went to prison was because, as a joke, he paid in a store with a toy 5 thousand ruble bill, which is sold in kiosks. Despite the fact that, according to the former prisoner, it is written in the case that this bill is not a fake and is material evidence, he was imprisoned for two years.
In your own language
Image caption To visit orphanage"gentlemen" from the dacha staged the play "Kolobok"Psychologist Viktor Yakovlev, who worked on the project, draws attention to the wary attitude not only from society towards former prisoners, but also vice versa.
"The project was divided into two parts - those who actively worked with psychologists, and those who stayed away. Some of the heroes had a wary attitude towards people from the outside. They don’t trust us - this is an objective reality, and this is a two-way border. If we find ways by leveling these boundaries, we can expect a good effect,” Yakovlev believes.
According to the psychologist, one of the most important aspects reality shows with the participation of prisoners are a general cultural part of it.
“They speak their own language, and this is a different version of the Russian language. The group was quite heterogeneous, although there were mainly thieves. And when they began to understand that Russian speech is generally different, this was one of the educational moments for them. This was not on a purely professional psychological plane, but on a general cultural one,” says Viktor Yakovlev.
The psychologist says that the not very successful fate of the project participants was mainly affected by childhood traumas that they received either in the family or on the street.
Producer Alla Lipovetskaya considers the reality show “Gentlemen in the Dacha” to be a project for parents.
“If you look at the stories of our heroes, the whole problem is in the parents, and this is actually scary. All the crazy dramas and broken destinies turned out to be the “merit” of the parents. Such a breakdown occurred at the level of their childhood,” says Lipnitskaya.
Women's season
Three participants in the first, Ukrainian, season of “Gentlemen in the Dacha” have already returned to places of detention. According to the producer of the project, this once again confirms that not all former prisoners are ready to work hard and for a long time on themselves, both internally and physically, because they leave prison very weak and often sick. Many of them break down very easily.
However, Alla Lipovetskaya has no doubt that the heroes of the Russian project will become popular in society, that they will be discussed in social networks and on the pages of printed publications, since there are many talented people among them.
“Of course, on a state scale it is impossible to deal with each person who has been released in such a targeted manner, but I don’t see any other way out. In order for there to be a result and for them not to return to prison, they need to be stroked on the head for at least a year and a half after prison and hold hands," Lipovetskaya sums up.
To the winner television project you will get a car. The best among the former prisoners who made an attempt to eradicate the zone from their soul will be determined by the show's house committee (Domkom), consisting of a presenter, psychologist, art psychologist, lawyer and professional housekeeper.
In the spring, on March 8, the first women's season of a reality show with the participation of former prisoners will start on Pepper. In September, the casting for this project was completed, after which 10 girls went to filming in Odessa.
"Velvet season in Odessa in a luxurious villa by the sea, best psychologists, lawyers, stylists, massage therapists, trainers and specialists - all this awaits women and girls who are ready to prove their right to a better life,” says the channel’s website.
In order to take part in the project, former prisoners aged 18 to 40 had to have Russian passport, and also fill out a form with fields such as " Total term stay in places of deprivation of liberty", "Composition of the last crime according to the sentence" and "Dream".
The women's season, according to the producer of the reality show, will feature two former prisoners with convictions for murder.
The show “Experiment-12” started on November 6. In continuous mode online broadcasts on YouTube, “VKontakte” and the Hype app show 12 volunteers pretending to be a mock prison. Four of them are guards and eight are prisoners.
The broadcast will continue until December 30th, each week the participant with the least votes in the Hype app will be put in the “electric chair” (whatever that means).
The show's creators decided to repeat the 1971 Stanford prison experiment. Then in the USA, under the leadership of psychologist Philip Zimbarde, 24 volunteers were divided into prisoners and guards and forced to live in conditions replicating a real prison.
Every third guard began to show sadistic tendencies, prisoners tried to organize an escape, and the prison in the university basement turned into a place of arbitrariness. The experiment, designed to last two weeks, was completed after six days.
Unlike the secret experiment in the basement of Stanford, “Experiment 12” can be watched by anyone through web cameras.
The host of the show is the famous blogger Yuri Khovansky, but in the first hour and a half of the broadcast his voice was heard only twice, when he asked the guards to go to the observation post where they receive tasks.
The first task for the participants was to identify one person in the women's cell and one in the men's cell who would sleep on a bare bed frame without a mattress, pillow or blanket. As a result, the guys shared things with each other, and the girls decided to resolve this issue before going to bed.
The second task was more difficult - blindfolded prisoners were forced to kneel and stand until the first two people stood up and agreed to go to the punishment cell. One of the guards stood with them.
At first, the guards tried to force the men to stand up and not torture the girls, then one of the prisoners suggested that everyone stand up at the same time, but this idea was rejected. As a result, a girl named Zlata stood up first, followed by another guy. But they were not punished - on the contrary, they were given immunity from the punishment cell. Zlata was allowed to call her parents.
The “prison” looks very conventional - prisoners can freely go to the kitchen, move around the rooms, the corridor, and communicate. Some viewers of the broadcast compared what was happening to the reality show “House 2”.
The show was organized by the Black Elephant project, which specializes in reality quests and various experiments. In May 2017, they streamed a tied-up girl with a countdown timer attached to her. The radio “Moscow Speaks” could be heard in the background, and the presenters began a live broadcast and tried to talk to the girl, find out where she was.
When the timer reached zero, the broadcast stopped. Representatives of Black Elephant called the stream that scared many people