There was an escape on a spurt... Hunger, cold, humiliation, sickness - a person can endure all these things, but the daily struggle with their thoughts is a completely different matter. When everything goes awry in your head, then everything will end.
I didn’t expect a little-known Belgian film to make such a strong impression on me. Even with a relatively small budget, unknown actors and director, this heavy prison drama vaguely reminiscent of Midnight Express takes its realism first and foremost. The prison life shown here, the play of actors, the picture permeated with the aching truth of life. Everything is so real that in some places just goosebumps go on the skin.
The plot is based on the true story of a simple Belgian bus driver, on false charges for smuggling drugs, who got into a Moroccan prison. He had to overcome the conditions of animal life, repression by guards and cellmates, the death of a friend, as well as hunger and disease. And only thanks to the fortitude of the spirit, the help of a friend and the serious support of the family that raised a public outcry, he was able to survive in these terrible inhuman conditions.
Belgian actor Philip Peters very convincingly played the despair of the main character, he laid out here for all 100. You've never believed his game. No wonder for his role he received the prize as best actor at the Montreal Film Festival. It is only regrettable that the real prototype of the protagonist Pierre Stukken, after leaving prison with a disabled tuberculosis patient, lived only 10 years. The only consolation is that he still managed to visit the premiere of the film in Brussels.
8 out of 10