First Circle

Inside Mavrino Prison, the first circle of penal hell in Stalin’s Russia, the inmates – physicists, mathematicians, electrical engineers, technical experts – are forced to operate a scientific research center. The term of their sentence is undefined. A discovery useful to the government could mean freedom. A failure could mean a labor camp in Siberia.

From a phone booth on a dark Moscow street, a man makes a furtive and a hurried phone call to the American Embassy. His call is being recorded by The Ministry of Security for whom establishing the caller’s identity becomes a matter of mounting urgency.

At Mavrino, a voice print analysis machine is in late-stage development. The pressure to complete it becomes relentless. As tension, suspicion and the risk of betrayal mount, each scientist must struggle to retain his humanity in the face of overwhelming tyranny.