The year 2014: People sentenced to death are sent to an uninhabited island and have to survive in unbearable living conditions. This is the plot of “The New Land”, the debut movie by Russian director Aleksandr Melnik.

The story is set in the near future, in a time when capital punishment is banned across the globe.

Prison corridors became the second home to the actors, who played the roles of criminals sentenced to death. 

The convicts take part in an international experiment. They are sent to live in an uninhabited area, where there is no supervision. It is a kind of freedom, but one which comes at a cost. The cost is that it is almost impossible to survive in their new environment.

The film crew headed to Spitzbergen for its harsh climate and wild nature. It was the ideal location to depict brutal people enduring brutal conditions.

The creators say their film is about people's endurance and about those few who have enough power to resist the herd instinct even on the edge of survival.