Open access
LIFE BEHIND BARS: THE IMAGE OF PRISON AS A TOTAL INSTITUTION IN SELECTED POLISH FEATURE FILMS
Marek SOKOŁOWSKI1
Publication language: Polish
scientific paper
Quest Editor of the Issue Dominika Popielec
Transformations No. 1(128)2026, Publication date: 31 March 2026
Keywords: life in prison, prisons, media image, total institution
Abstract Cinema allows us to enter the interiors of institutions and facilities that are typically inaccessible to outsiders. Such is the nature of prisons, the life within them, and the experiences of inmates, detainees, and convicts—an intriguing reality that is inherently cinematic. For this reason, world cinematography has produced numerous films depicting this closed, hermetic world, which remains off-limits to outsiders.The study of media representations is interdisciplinary. In this analysis, the method of image research has been employed, drawing on the work of the classic American sociologist and representative of symbolic interactionism, Erving Goffman, who defined prisons as total institutions. An anthropological-morphological analysis was also applied, considering elements such as the film's form (genre), the time and place of action, the characters portrayed, and the prison as an institution of isolation.
Katedra Socjologii, Uniwersytet Warmińsko – Mazurski w Olsztynie, Polska
ORCID: 0000-0003-2658-9880
E-mail: marek.sokolowski@uwm.edu.pl