The Steel Cage

Seven short films - each one focused on the plight of a different child protagonist.

A gangster escapes jail and quickly makes plans to continue his criminal ways elsewhere, but a determined inspector is closing in.

A strange mortician tells four horrific tales to three drug dealers that he traps in their local funeral parlor.

Red is an aging scam-artist who's just been released from prison together with Ronnie, a young and not-so-bright hoodlum who is easily manipulated. Their new business is to organize fake-money sales and then kill the buyer to take his money; but when Ronnie kills an undercover secret service agent, his partner Jimmy Mercer vows revenge and is given one week to catch the killers before being transferred.

North Africa, World War II. British soldiers on the brink of collapse push beyond endurance to struggle up a brutal incline. It's not a military objective. It's The Hill, a manmade instrument of torture, a tower of sand seared by a white-hot sun. And the troops' tormentors are not the enemy, but their own comrades-at-arms.

In New York, former convict Pete Koslow, related to the Polish mafia, must deal with both Klimek the General, his ruthless boss, and the twisted ambitions of two federal agents, as he tries to survive and protect the lives of his loved ones.

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

Women rebel against slave labor in a filthy jungle prison where they feed sugar cane to a mechanical maw.

Powerful, uncompromising drama about two boys' struggle for survival in the nightmare world of Britain's notorious Borstal Reformatory.

A young female prison guard finds out that her first assignment is to San Quentin, one of the toughest prisons in the country.

An American priest working in Mexico is considered a saint by many local parishioners. However, due to a botched exorcism, he carries a secret that’s eating him alive until he gets an opportunity to face his demon one final time.

A crusading psychiatrist battles a sadistic female warden to improve conditions at a women's prison.

Tae-jeo, a correctional officer with 15 years of experience, learns about the death of an inmate's mother during a night shift. On that winter night, she visits the funeral home and unexpectedly meets the inmate's daughter, Jun-young. Their encounter brings warmth to both their lives, and Tae-jeo hopes Jun-young understands: “Every decision you make shapes who you become."

In post-war Germany, liberation by the Allies does not mean freedom for everyone. Hans Hoffmann is repeatedly imprisoned under Paragraph 175, which criminalizes homosexuality. Nevertheless, over the decades, he continues his quest for freedom and love, even if he finds it in the most unusual places.

Britisher Sir Charles Farrington and a son, Rex Farrington, arrive in a Russian Soviet territory searching for another Farrington son, Michael,who has been thrown into prison. Valarie Perrovna is a singer who is in love with the imprisoned son and she provides the searchers with the information as to where the missing son is being held. They all go there and help Michael escape. But is their escape vehicle---a flat wagon pulled by three horses--- fast enough and sturdy enough through the snow to beat the Commmisar and his troops to the Rumanian border

During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.

California teen Anita Minteer struggles in the face of an absentee mother, her mom's abusive boyfriend, Rooney, and a lack of respect from her classmates. This all changes when a pen-pal school project connects her with convict Howard. Anita secures Howard's parole and violently squares off against Rooney after he rapes her. Soon enough, the gun-crazy teen is on the run with Howard, with his parole officer in pursuit.

An embittered penitentiary social worker receives an unwelcome blast from the past when the case file of his father, a convicted murderer who has been emotionally broken by prison life, lands on his desk.

A young woman stumbles into a nightmare land of hijacking and humiliation while driving cross-country from California to New York.