Escape from Pretoria

1979, South Africa. Three political prisoners jailed for working against apartheid plan an escape. Their weapons are wooden keys, which Tim Jenkin carves one by one from stolen material while studying the locks. The tension is not in a fight but in the chance of a wrong key jamming in a lock on every attempt. Francis Annan directed. Daniel Radcliffe plays Tim Jenkin, with Daniel Webber and Ian Hart alongside him. The source is Jenkin's 2003 memoir. It happened. The escapees reached London by way of Mozambique and Tanzania. Shooting took place in Adelaide, South Australia in early 2019. Jenkin himself appears as an extra and advised Radcliffe on the accent. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 73 percent and Metacritic at 56. Critics wrote that the film does not quite do justice to the fact-based story but delivers gripping jailbreak tension. Who it is for: viewers who like mechanical, patient escape films. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the political background of apartheid. The film spends almost all its time in a corridor at a lock.