Yes, this is a film about architecture, but it’s also an indictment of American society and its cruel system of imprisonment.

Renowned architect Frank Gehry joins a group of American architecture students on a journey to learn about American prisons and their terrible conditions, and contrast them with prison (and rehabilitation) facilities in other countries, primarily Norway. These are still prisons — but they’re much more humane. It’s a bit surprising to see Gehry, the architect of ostentatious cultural institutions and residences for the wealthy, embark on such a project. But he asks the students guiding questions like, “What if we start treating people like human beings — what would prison look like?” Their answers are far different from the institutions we recognize from the movies and that many Americans are familiar with in real life (The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any democracy and recidivism is rampant.)

The most interesting characters in this film are former inmates, who meet with the students, convey what it means to be locked up in a cage, and emphasize the need to build a different kind of prison —​ ​for those incarcerated in them and for American society at large.