Hello, everybody. Welcome to my channel.Hello, everybody. Welcome to my channel.
Today I am going to explain a South African film called escape from Pretoria. The film starts with
the voice over of Tim Jenkin who explains the status of apartheid in South Africa in 1978.
The police were shooting the black protestors like dogs, all democratic opposition was silenced
with brut force. While the white people enjoyed their peaceful life with their white only beach,
the black population was perishing. Two white boys, Tim Jenkin and his friend Stephen Lee,
were the members of the African National Congress, which wanted a non-segregated South Africa.Jenkin
and Lee actively take part in the ANC’s work, whose motto was to establish equal rights to all
South Africans, black, white and Asians. Jenkin proclaims that freedom can’t be begged, it has
to be fought. Now he and Lee plant leaflet bombs across the cape town spreading the message of ANC.
Shortly after that, both were arrested. His girlfriend, Daphne, hurriedly meets him in the
police station. She gives him some money and asks him not to appeal against the jail term.
Jenkin proudly states that he will never ask mercy from fascists.The
local judge scolds both of them and says the government of South Africa has given them all
the necessary facilities to live a peaceful and prosperous life, instead of using it,
they are wasting it on terrorist activities. He sentences Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee to 12 years
and 8 years of imprisonment respectively. Shocked at the judgement, Lee tries to escape
the court by jumping from the window, but he gets caught again. Now both are transferred to
the central jail for white political criminals in Pretoria. On arrival, jail captain Schnepel
welcomes them with the taunt that they are the white Mandela, the most disillusioned ones.
Now jail warden Mango instructs them all the rules, no parcel larger than 6”X4”,
no sexual activity of any kind, one visit per month with prior approval, at 11 PM lights off,
at 5 AM bell, 7:30 AM breakfast. Jenkin starts to observe all the doors and their
working mechanisms from outside to his cabin. There were many doors, all had different keys,
his and other prisoners cabin had two lock doors with the same key.
DAY 1
On their first day, veteran political prisoner Denis Goldberg, who was sentenced to four life
terms with Nelson Mandela and Sisulu, introduces himself to Jenkin and Lee. He gives a quick tour
of the prison. Jenkin asks him the weak points to break out. He was planning for the escape.
Goldberg tells him that there are none, they all are political prisoners.
Prisoners of conscience. They have chosen to complete their term, he suggests that they do
the same. The Jenkin disagrees, says he is a prisoner of war and sticks to his plan.
Another prisoner, Leonard Fontaine, secretly tells Jenkin and Lee that he will support
them if they come up with an actionable plan. Jenkin gives money to Goldberg for safe keeping.
DAY 23
Jenkin thinks about escaping day and night. He starts with a sketch of his cabin’s key.
He decides that the best way to escape the prison is to make duplicate keys of all the
doors from his room to the outer yard. He shares his idea with Leonard who at first
quashes it as the stupidest idea, but with no other options available, he supports Jenkin.
Jenkin says in order to make duplicate keys, he has to see the key structure thoroughly.
The keys were always with warden mongo, he used to hang them at his belt.
Jenkin starts observing those keys for many days,
he starts drawing their structure on paper at his cabin. He does it for many days.
DAY 74
After observing for many days, Jenkin now starts to make those keys in a wooden workshop.
This workshop was set up to produce goods for the general public.
After completing his cabin's key, he secretly brings it to his cabin.
At night he tries to open his cabin door. To his surprise and disbelief, it actually works.
He feels accomplished, but his feelings live for a short time as the cabin had two doors,
the other one can only be unlocked from outside. He shares this news with Lee and Leonard. They all
continue to help him to find the key structure for the outer door too. It takes several days.
DAY 100
At this stage, Jenkin makes the key for the outer door too.
The news of his keys spreads like a wild fire, all his fellow prisoners know about it.
They also help him. One day during the floor cleaning, Jenkin tries to test
his key from outside, it works, but due to poor quality wood, it gets stuck in the key
hole. He hurriedly removes it, but he was not able to turn back the hatch. In the morning,
warden mongo sees the open hatch, and he thinks this as his mistake yesterday. He ignores it.
Now, Leonard gets a 30-minute visit from his 5-year-old son. But here prison guards
canceled this meeting after a few minutes with lame excuses. This makes Leonard very furious.
DAY 142
Leonard was getting agitated and sick with passing days. When all three were discussing how to open
the outer door from the inside, Lee suggested an idea with a cleaning stick. Its length was
sufficient for someone to use it through the window adjacent to the door. Jenkin now makes
an attachment to the stick which can rotate when used horizontally, converting the linear motion
into rotational motion. Jenkin, after many attempts, successfully opens the outer door.
He and Lee now hide the keys in a bottle for others. In the meantime, Goldberg warns Jenkin
to be extra careful in dealing. As he could easily get another 25 years for escaping.
He warns about a sniper who recently got transferred here.
Goldberg assures him of all the help he could do.
After a few days, Jenkin makes a key for another door.
He shares this news with others, they think that it's too risky, there are many unknowns.
Jenkin now smuggles soaps, cigarettes and other goods with the help from a black janitor.
The janitor agrees to smuggle civilian clothes in exchange for money. This goes on for days.
DAY 296.Warden Mango gives a new set of glasses to Jenkins, which he asked for.
Now for many nights Jenkin, Lee and Leonard have been trying to unlock all the doors in their way.
They were successful in evading the night guards. One night on a routine visit,
a jail guard sees clusters of sweat drops on the floor but fails to find out how they got there.Due
to sleep deprivation one morning, Jenkin sleeps late. Captain Schnepel orders a
check-up of Jenkin's cabin, he finds a small wooden prototype of a key. On inquiring Jenkin
lies it as a stand for his parents photos. Jenkins and others continue their mission every night.DAY
404.Now all the three have successfully obtained all the keys required to escape.
They also now had a map which showed the direction once they are out.
They meet up with Goldberg and his colleges, and he requests them to join them in escaping.
Goldberg refuses it, he says he is a prisoner of conscience, he will suffer like Mandela and
accept its consequence. Jenkin tries hard but fails.In the night Jenkin, Lee and Leonard open
doors one by one. They change their clothes with the civilian clothes which they have smuggled.
Goldberg was also not sleeping, during the night he intentionally broke his room bulb.
He starts calling the night guard in order to distract him. Ceasing this distraction,
all three successfully unlocks all the doors and escape the prison. They even evade the psychopath
sniper.After going out, the carefully walks across the town, then runs towards the taxi
stand. Jenkin hires a black taxi driver. The driver says white taxis are down the road,
Jenkin tells him not to bother about it and offers generous money to take them out of town.During
the morning rounds, the warden finds out that three have escaped and sets the alarm.
The film ends with these three rejoicings in their freedom.The end credits say all three have
successfully crossed the border to Mozambique, from there to Tanzania and then to London.
Denis Goldberg was released after 22 years in 1985. The police arrested Jenkin’s girlfriend
Daphane for nine days, she never saw Jenkin again. Apartheid was over in 1992 and Nelson Mandela
became the first black president of South Africa in 1994. I hope you liked this video. If you are
new to the channel, then please subscribe and like. Thanks for watching. Take care.