Escape from Pretoria
Escape from Pretoria

Escape from Pretoria

2020Movie102 minEnglish

South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.

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Insights

IMDb5.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes50%
Metacritic43/100
Google Users56%
Director: Francis AnnanGenres: Drama, Thriller, History

Plot Summary

In 1979, two anti-apartheid activists, Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, are imprisoned in Pretoria, South Africa, for distributing political pamphlets. Realizing their sentence is indefinite, they meticulously plan and execute a daring escape from the maximum-security prison. Their ingenious plan involves crafting wooden keys and navigating a series of locked doors to regain their freedom.

Critical Reception

Escape from Pretoria received a mixed to generally negative reception from critics. While some acknowledged the compelling true story and Daniel Radcliffe's performance, many found the film to be a somewhat predictable and underdeveloped thriller that didn't fully capitalize on its source material's potential for tension and depth. Audience reception was also lukewarm, with many finding it a straightforward, if somewhat uninspired, prison break movie.

What Reviewers Say

  • The film's premise and true-story aspect are engaging, but the execution lacks consistent tension.
  • Daniel Radcliffe delivers a solid performance, but the narrative struggles to build significant suspense.
  • The escape plot is somewhat predictable, and the film doesn't delve deeply enough into the political context or characters' motivations.

Google audience: Google users found the movie to be an interesting true story about a prison escape, with many appreciating Daniel Radcliffe's role. However, a significant portion of viewers felt the film was somewhat slow-paced and lacked the suspense expected from a thriller of this nature.

Awards & Accolades

None notable.

Fun Fact

The film is based on the true story of Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, who were indeed imprisoned for distributing anti-apartheid pamphlets and successfully escaped from Pretoria Central Prison in 1979 using homemade keys.

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