Chain-Gang All-Stars

Not too unlike from America's own, a corrupt private jail system pits two elite female gladiators against one other for their release.

The headliners of Chain-Gang All-headliners, the mainstay of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, are Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker. CAPE is a highly contentious and well-liked show that raises money for the growing powerful private prison sector in America. Gladiators are back, and inmates are vying for the greatest reward of all: their freedom.

Prisoners in CAPE travel in chain-gangs called Links and engage in death-matches with virtuous demonstrators at the gates of crowded venues. The fans' favorites are Thurwar and Staxxx, who are both lovers and teammates. Thurwar also bears the weight of knowing that, with luck, she will be free in a matter of matches, much like her deadly hammer. In spite of these "games," Thurwar thinks about how she may assist her fellow Links maintain their humanity as she gets ready to leave them, but CAPE's corporate owners will do everything it takes to maintain the status quo, and the roadblocks they put in Thurwar's way have disastrous results.

Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the unholy alliance of systemic racism, unbridled capitalism, and mass incarceration in the American prison system, as well as a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means. It moves from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond.