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The elderly doctor who runs a remote psychiatric hospital in Siberia is like Dante's Virgil as he guides the viewer not through hell, but through the corridors of the building. He wonders aloud, “Where is the seat of the human soul? In the heart? In the brain? Or is it perhaps elsewhere?” He sighs that it is a great enigma. This mystification of soul and mental illness captured by Polish director Wojciech Kasperski stands in shrill contrast to everyday life in the institution, where the staff struggles to do its job with minimal resources. The doctor contends that he can quickly tell whether a new arrival will ever be able to leave this place. If medication turns out to be ineffective, the only alternative in this crowded building is to restrain the patients. Gandhi said you can tell how civilized a society is by the way it treats its weakest members – what this says about the soul of Russia is for the viewer to decide. In whatever case, Kasperski’s camera observes the hopsital's inhabitants with compassion and a true feel for beauty.