![]() The third partner in the escape, Egyptian-born activist Alex Moumbaris, has been fictionalized as enigmatic Frenchman Leonard (Mark Leonard Winter), who has no discernible history or motivation at all, while two black allies in the plan are marginal presences at best. The real-life Goldberg was much more supportively involved in the prison-break strategy if the script does him something of a disservice for the purposes of greater narrative friction, that’s not the fastest and loosest it plays with facts. Jenkin hatches a plan to whittle wooden facsimiles of the keys to every door separating them from the outside world - an almost naively simple scheme that necessitates a complex network of hiding places and bluffs, as vindictive guards begin to suspect something is afoot. Banished to the vast prison complex of Pretoria, the country’s administrative capital, Jenkin and Lee are protectively counseled by veteran liberal political prisoner Denis Goldberg (British veteran Ian Hart, giving the character a geezer-y air), who advises them to keep their heads down and to serve their time with dignity as “prisoners of conscience.” The youngsters, countering that they are instead prisoners of war, immediately set about an escape plan regardless. Adams’ workaday screenplay, the actor’s signature anxious-earnest mien is leaned on a lot here, as is his overly explanatory voiceover, which provides a broad primer on apartheid for any uninformed viewers, along with a reminder that “freedom and equality should be fought for at all costs.”įor Jenkin, that cost is a 12-year prison sentence, handed down after he and his best friend Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber, tersely charismatic in a thin part) were caught planting a leaflet bomb to distribute ANC protest flyers in central Cape Town. Given the limited backstory filled in by Annan and L.H. Sporting a squirrelly shag wig and a valiantly attempted but wayward Cape Town accent, Radcliffe plays Jenkin, a middle-class sociology student turned underground activist for the African National Congress, with his own brand of puppyish but righteous commitment. Meanwhile, it may struggle to find much of a fanbase in its own country of setting, where audiences might reasonably wonder why at least one South African actor couldn’t have been cast in a principal role. The casting of Daniel Radcliffe as Jenkin lends it some marquee appeal, but this still feels like efficient VOD fodder, sure to age as memorably as “Stander,” that other blandly internationalized biographical romp pulled from the same passage of South African history. ![]() The last 30-odd years have seen such a wealth of diverse, resonant personal histories emerge from the ashes of apartheid - not least that of the actual, not-white Mandela - that “Escape from Pretoria” could well have missed its moment entirely.Īs it is, it’s been done cheaply and (sort of) cheerfully as an Australian production by British writer-director Francis Annan, focusing heavily on suspense mechanics as if to modestly understate its factual heft. It’s surprising that it’s taken this long to reach the screen, given how sveltely his gripping story fits into a genre-film uniform. It’s a real display of the actor’s talent.Jenkin’s book of the same title was published in 1987, when he was still living as a fugitive from nominal justice in London. Radcliffe is subdued but committed, lending an ideal everyman quality to Jenkin. It steadily builds its tension, culminating in a heart-pounding sequence in which Jenkin tries to rescue a key he dropped outside of his cell with nothing but a stick and a piece of gum. That cyclical process is what makes Escape from Pretoria tick. ![]() He’ll break himself out of his cell only to lock himself up again, waiting until he’s certain there’s a clear path out of the prison gates and on to freedom. The escape itself takes up a majority of the runtime, as Jenkin puts himself through a rigorous process of trial and error. Director Francis Annan, who co-wrote the script with LH Adams, is clearly entranced by the mechanics of it, crafting an intricate and studiously plotted film in return. Day by day, week by week, Jenkin carved his own set of keys out of wood scraps, all carefully hidden from view of the guards. His methods were meticulous – this wasn’t Steve McQueen and his motorcycle vaulting over barbed wire fences. ![]()
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