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The Russian historical drama Katorga was distributed in the United States under the title In Old Siberia. Set in a Czarist prison camp, the story focuses on a group of rebellious political prisoners. Given a measure of intellectual freedom by their humanistic warden, the prisoners are in for a jolt when the new warden arrives. He laughs at their demands for better treatment, orders them to purge themselves of free thought, and (worst of all, at least in the eyes of the producers) demands that they attend church. Tired of being subjected to forced conformity, the prisoners stage a mutiny. Some of the final scenes were photographed with a hand-held camera, a rarity at that time.