Almost ten thousand Palestinians, designated by the Israeli government as “Security Prisoners,” are incarcerated in Israel today. Most Israelis consider them murderers and criminals, but most Palestinians regard them as freedom fighters. Granted rare permission to film inside the country’s highest security facilities, Israeli filmmaker Shimon Dotan shows everyday prison life, including biweekly family visits, internal elections, periodic security searches of cells, and relations between inmates and prison staff. HotHouse also features interviews with many Palestinian prisoners, including those involved in suicide bombings. Although their political demands are understandable, the bloodcurdling confessions of these proud, unrepentant and often smiling terrorists expose the moral disconnect required for such inhuman actions. HotHouse also makes it clear that the Israeli criminal justice system uses imprisonment to stifle or control Palestinian democratic political life. The Palestinian experience in Israeli prisons has become a national symbol in Palestine, and the prisons themselves have become virtual universities for Palestinian nationalism.