Cape Town - The story of anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin’s escape from Pretoria Central Prison, a plot involving self-made wooden keys, makes its debut at a time when there is global upheaval surrounding racial discrimination.
The film is directed by British film-maker Francis Annan and stars Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Jenkin, and Daniel Webber as Stephen Lee. Ian Hart also stars as struggle stalwart Denis Goldberg.
Along with co-conspirator Lee, Jenkin was sent to Pretoria Central Prison in 1978 after being convicted in Cape Town of producing and distributing pamphlets for banned organisations such as the ANC, the SACP and Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Soon after their incarceration, Jenkin devised a plan to escape the prison using wooden keys he had fashioned in the prison workshop. Goldberg was originally involved as intending to escape, too, but later dropped out and remained on as adviser.
In December 1979, Jenkin, Lee and fellow inmate Alex Moumbaris successfully escaped from the prison with Jenkin unlocking nine of its doors while Goldberg distracted the warden.
Jenkin wrote about the ordeal in his 2003 book, Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria Prison, on which the film is largely based.
According to Jenkin, the film remains accurate to the narrative. “Of course, the individual scenes are fiction,” he said. “But Francis had a difficult job because it was an escape that took place over a year and a half, and he had to summarise a whole lot. I think he captured that pretty well and while some of the scenes are not 100 percent accurate in a film like this you need to keep tension and it’s true to the narrative.”
Annan said the desire to tell Jenkin’s story originated from his interest in the uniqueness of the escape.
The film was shot in Adelaide, South Australia, last year.
Escape from Pretoria is available on DVD and Blu-ray and will now debut as a TNT Original Production on July 4 on DStv channel 137.