Not Quite Prison Movies

» Das fidele Gefängnis / The Merry Jail (1917, Germany)

Big House Fledermaus. A few benign prison scenes in a benign film.

» half (2014, South Korea)

Beige, slightly disappointing tale of a trans woman very alone in the prison system.

» Baykot / Boycott (1986, Iran)

Compelling movie tracking a revolutionary’s doubts as his execution approaches.

» 40 Sticks (2020, Kenya)

Thriller involving an escort bus, eight death row killers, and a mysterious series of throat cuttings that afflicts them all.

» Bajocero / Below Zero (2021, Spain)

Taut action-thriller; an escort van is ambushed in the middle of a freezing night.

» Le droit d’aimer (1972, France / Italy)

A faithful woman secures a visit with her political prisoner partner after more than two years.

» A cavallo della tigre / Riding the Tiger (2002, Italy)

Pale remake of the 1961 movie of the same name about an unwilling escapee.

» Swamp Women (1956, USA)

Undercover cop escapes prison to recover stolen diamonds in the Louisiana swamp. Tedious.

» Prividenie, kotoroe ne vozvrashchaetsya / The Ghost That Never Returns (1929, USSR)

Silent movie. A furlough for a political prisoner goes awry and leads to one last desperate act for the cause.

» Prisoner Maria: The Movie (1995, Japan)

Awful, sleazy film, very little of it set in prison, of a prisoner used as an extrajudicial assassin.