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“We are all in a suspended prison regime right now: we can’t do this and that, we have to walk in masks, we have to sit at home, we can’t go to the theater anymore, we have to be two meters away and much more. In the series “Tunnel” we are actually very close to what our daily life is like in a pandemic. Yes, the prison has its own rules, codes and language, but the prisoners are exactly the same people as us! Only by being in a real prison or in an environment close to it can you understand how our thinking changes due to restrictions, ”says Andris Bulis about the connection between the new series and our daily lives.
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One of the locations of the original “Tunnel” story is a prison, but the life stories of the characters are multi-layered and not always closely related to this environment. The filming takes place mainly in Brasa Prison, where counselors – former prisoners, guards, court and prison environment experts – not only provide useful advice to actors (for example, not to put your hands in your pockets while walking outside in the prison yard, as they must be visible), but also tells about the laws of this closed environment. Nationality does not matter there: in Latvian prisons, everyone often speaks Russian, using slang and specific codes.
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Bulis shares his experience from the first day of filming in Brasa Prison: “When we first went to Brasa Prison, we saw a real, amazing environment. After the first day of filming, eight hours in solitary confinement, there was a very strong awareness that people had left their lives there. After leaving the filming area, I sat in the car for half an hour and could not drive. I clearly understood that there is not much to complain about in life, you just have to go there, sit in jail, and all the little things become insignificant. ”
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The protagonist of the series knows how to tell that the inscriptions left on the walls by the former prisoners can still be seen in Brasa Prison – sometimes not very polite, mostly in Russian. Figures show the dates and reasons for which they were imprisoned, various symbols. A large number of young people who take part in mass spectacles are discovered, revealing what the prison environment really is like.
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Andris says directly about the change of thinking in prison: “The strange feeling is that when filming in a prison cell, a person gets used to and accepts conditions very quickly. Now I understand the people who have nowhere to go in life, who have been rejected. They have no family, nothing, prison is their only place to exist. There are their own rules, they know how to live there. A man who has “sat down” for five years is told “go” after his release, but where should he go? What does society expect from such a person if he has experienced it? My “aftertaste” of prisoners: we want these people to integrate, to meet and greet everyone simply and openly, but for them, thinking in prison changes significantly. Of course, they have broken the rules, but we never know exactly why people did it. ”
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