» 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.
» Murder in the Big House (1942, USA)
Neat film about a cub reporter who solves a prison murder. Much too neat, really.
» Prisoner/Terrorist (2007, Japan)
Turgid, opaque movie of a terrorist’s tortured descent into madness in prison.