After a few tries, he managed to get the key to the right position and the door opened. Its surprising that its taken this long to reach the screen, given how sveltely his gripping story fits into a genre-film uniform. I got a piece of paper and, using a knife, pressed it into the lock. Select Your Cookie Preferences. It was gut-wrenching the length of time we were given, Stephen recalled. Stephen began to experiment with wooden keys the exact replicas used by prison guards during his compulsory shifts at the prison's wood workshop. Watch on. After leaving . Moumbaris was charged under the Terrorism Act in January 1973. We had to make these parts under the noses of the guards. You hardly have to measure., He continued: The actual shape, we got by looking at their [guards] keys, as we had the overall height already, it was just a question of guessing how deep the cuts were and our guess was correct and the very first key was correct. Moumbaris, unlike the two other men, was at Pretoria Prison since 1973. "We would go to crowded bus stations and markets and leave them. Watch on. Banished to the vast prison complex of Pretoria, the countrys 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. There was also a six-metre high barbed-wire perimeter fence. I wanted to go back and do it again, as we hadnt opened that door before., He says: We escaped it a number of times in fact, each time going a bit further, the actual [final] escape was the easy part.. Two years later, Marie-Jos gave birth to a daughter, Zo, who was born on 11 December 1981, the second anniversary of the escape. Moumbaris was the only non-South African prisoner, and when Jenkin met him, he appeared as "a little aloof". Escape from Pretoria: Directed by Francis Annan. Using the broom he was allowed to keep to sweep his cell, he created another genius contraption. As clunkily deployed in the [] "You are the white Mandela," says a ham-faced warden, all but spitting in the face of anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin upon his arrival at Pretoria Local Prison in 1978. While the first step toward freedom might have been exhilarating, it was far from their most momentous achievement. All of them imprisoned for underground work on behalf of the . Shooting on location in Adelaide, Australia a handsome but none-too-convincing stand-in for the South African highveld in exterior scenes DP Geoffrey Hall keeps the camera moves antsy but not fussy. But near doors five and six was the night warders office. There he met and married a French woman, Marie-Jos. While Tim - the technical mastermind - was sentenced to 12 years in jail, his friend Stephen got eight years. 40 years after his mad dash for freedom with his collection of wooden keys and one chisel which was, unbelievably, successful Jenkins story is being told in the feature film, with Daniel Radcliffe playing the lead role. Escape from Pretoria makes an ideal everyman out of Daniel Radcliffe The actor plays Tim Jenkin, a real-life political prisoner during apartheid-era South Africa, who made a daring escape in 1979 We has skype chats, he wanted to learn about the character and the accent, Jenkin, now-71, explained of the study Radcliffe did to ace his portrayal. A lot of people cant understand how we got the shape of the key, but if you break it down most of the dimensions you get from the lock itself, you measure the hole, Jenkin explains like its nothing. [3], On 23 October 1973, the matter of possible theft of documents from the Clapham Common home of Moumbaris and his wife was raised in the UK parliament by Labour party MP Alex Lyon. Jenkin was born in Cape Town and educated at Rondebosch Boys' Prep and Boys' High School, matriculating aged 17. It was a victory over the system., Escape From Pretoria is released in UK cinemas on Friday, March 6, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. We walked out as if we had every right to be there. [27] A decade later Jenkin also created Clearing Central, a 2nd tier exchange for moneyless exchange between groups. My heart was racing. Yet fellow prisoners, who had already spent years locked up behind the six-metre high barbed-wire perimeter fence, poured scorn on their ambitions. MORE : Daniel Radcliffe is a much better actor than the world is giving him credit for, MORE : Daniel Radcliffe says he wouldnt want to return to Harry Potter, Harry and Meghan break silence after Charles evicts them from Frogmore Cottage, FA Cup quarter-final draw: Manchester United play Fulham; Man City face Burnley, Roy Keane slams West Ham midfielder Declan Rice after 80m Arsenal transfer link, Girl killed in Florida shooting ran to mom for help yelling he shot me, Emmerdale spoilers: Triple exit as Amy and Matty leave the village with Kyle, Daniel Radcliffe is a much better actor than the world is giving him credit for, Daniel Radcliffe says he wouldnt want to return to Harry Potter, Do not sell or share my personal information. This virus has brutally disrupted many cinematic dreams. As he says, for me its just like going to the movies. lindbacken fastigheter There was enough explosive inside to lift about 500 pamphlets into the air. A guard who found it assumed a colleague was to blame. Escape from Pretoria airs on Saturday, 4 July, at 20:00 on TNT (DStv 137) We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred. At night there were dogs in the yard, Stephen told The Mirror. They were very big locks so you could see the marks on the inside. But he needed to create another one to make it into the next part of the prison. Escape From Pretoria (2020 ) Directed and Written: Francis Annan Written and directed by Francis Annan, the historical thriller sheds light on how Stephen and Tim managed to defy all expectations and escape from the Pretoria Central Prison. [22], After their incarceration, Jenkin, Lee and several other inmates began plotting an escape, which would involve copies of several prison keys that Jenkin made from wood. [2] He worked for about nine years before becoming involved with the ANC [3] as one of the "London Recruits". Alex Moumbaris: Political activist, Political activist, Activist, From: Egypt. Tim, the technical expert of the pair, had devised a way of scattering banned leaflets by using explosive linked to a timer and detonator inside a carrier bag. . [17] Lee, having many friends in Johannesburg, thought it best to contact them in the first instance, so the group split at that point, making plans to meet in London. The lifelong supporters of the Nelson-Mandela-led African National Congress, they strove to mobilize the people to abolish segregation. Tim's door was just the beginning. All Rights Reserved. He discovered to his horror that there were ten doors they had to make it through. [18], From there they were flown to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, accompanied by MK commander, Joe Modise. Locked up in a maximum-security jail for setting off harmless leaflet propaganda bombs spreading dissent against the apartheid regime in 1970s South Africa, Stephen and friend Tim Jenkin were about to embark on one of the most audacious prison breaks in history. During this time they learnt of the activities of the African National Congress (ANC), which was an illegal organisation in South Africa. In September, he and Lee hung a 10-metre-long banner with the words "ANC LIVES" from a high building in the centre of Cape Town, along with a timed device which distributed hundreds of leaflets over the crowds below. Escape from Pretoria. Continue without accepting. He was born in Egypt to Greek parents, grew up in Australia, lived and worked in the UK, was imprisoned in South Africa and now lives in France. All Rights Reserved. There has only been one successful prison break since. Undeterred, Tim said: From the very first day, we started to collect intelligence about possible escape routes.. We got through the nine doors and then at the final door, we found we couldnt open the lock. Sneaking out of their cells at night, they soon managed to get through door four. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. The layout of the prison cell Tim escaped fromAfter making most of the key in his first week, Tim also needed to smuggle it back to his cell. To make this possible, they befriended another inmate, Alex Moumbaris. Nick Fentons editing, meanwhile, maintains a keen sense of physical space and strain, not least in one comically queasy scene where a dropped key must be retrieved with the aid of a broomstick and chewing gum. Lee worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, while Jenkin ran the "cell" on his own in Cape Town. He is known for his political activism against the apartheid. He is evidently based on the Egyptian-born French national, Alex Moumbaris, with whom the men actually broke out, although it isn't clear why his character has been fictionalised and the. Offers may be subject to change without notice. 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. [9] His ongoing task of generating enthusiasm amongst the other inmates for the escape plan was onerous, and the stress affected his health. As it is, its 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. A third prisoner, Alex Moumbaris, was brought in to be part of the escape. He became instrumental to the escape plan in several ways, making the early suggestion any escape plan would have to involve the making of keys,[7] providing a hacksaw which he had secreted after plumbers had left it behind,[8] and getting involved in some of the riskier aspects of the planning and testing of the scheme. Messages were typed into a computer, encrypted and saved to audio cassette, then sent from a public callbox to an answering machine. It was a little noise that promised a big prize freedom. As such, they were brought to the attention of South Africa's secret police. [5] He later wrote that he had "grown up a 'normal' complacent white South African" who "unthinkingly accepted the system and for twenty-one years never questioned it". I was so worried it was making a tremendous noise. Moubaris went to the USSR for training. Eenmaal onder de vleugels van politiek activist Denis Goldberg besluiten ze om, samen. The key, fortunately, also worked for the door of Stephen's neighbouring cell. Luckily, the warder blamed one of his colleagues. Alexandre Moumbaris is a political activist and former political prisoner. After hundreds of days of looking at the keys, he commits their shape to memory and successfully makes replicas for all nineteen doors that lead to the main gate of the prison. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Believe it or not, the chisel they used in the film [to beat down the door], was the actual chisel we used on the front door.. As clunkily deployed in the script for Escape from Pretoria, however, the line acts as a shortcut to nobility, in a tight genre exercise that has scant time for such elaborate niceties as character development and social context. We had . [11] The wardens were all Afrikaans-speaking and were not fluent in English, and while most of the prisoners were fairly fluent in Afrikaans, they were not familiar with the topics they talked about.