Jailbroken
It’s all about the numbers for Joe, the five years he has spent inside burned down to just three days left of his sentence, released into parole this coming Friday and eager to get back to work for Smiddy and to see his young son, in the care of his estranged wife Sara; a difficult prisoner, unrepentant, resistant to rehabilitation and with an antagonistic relationship with the guards, they have a surprise for him.
A new cellmate when Joe has made it clear he prefers to be left alone, Naz tries to establish a balance of power and fails, a kid trying to negotiate with a mountain, his conviction for online fraud not enough to make the violent repeat offender look twice, an intrusion in his life of confinement and an eavesdropper on conversations on his illicit mobile with the outside world, overhearing as Sara is apparently kidnapped.
The debut feature of director Vasily Chuprina, Jailbroken enjoyed its world premiere as the opening film of the FrightFest weekend at Glasgow Film Festival, a low-budget single location thriller which defies expectation to explode beyond the limitations of the production with Outpost III’s Bryan Larkin making Joe more than a tattooed thug, although he is every muscled inch that, Raymond Friel’s script giving depth to the characters and twists to the story.
Armin Karima the newcomer who thought his crimes were victimless, hands clean and conscience clear, he is naïve and in way over his head, finding himself in a white-walled world with bunk beds, aluminium sinks, threats and shivs, the single door controlled from outside and the hatch meaning any illusion of privacy is transitory, as swiftly broken as any hope either has control over their destiny or that Glasgow traffic will cooperate.
With Raging Grace’s David Hayman and Let Us Prey’s Douglas Russell as guards Smith and Rogers, delighting in the power they hold over their charges, taunting and goading to ensure Joe remembers who is in charge but always within the boundaries of their duties so no complaint can be upheld, they are unlikely to be sympathetic should Joe be forced to turn to them for help, their relationship long since crystallised.
A frantic vicarious investigation with no access to the evidence or the scene of the crime, Joe’s sister Kate (Howl’s Shauna Macdonald) a nervous pair of eyes following the white van at a distance, Jailbroken is a simmering pot with no pause for calm or reflection, Joe’s rage magnified by his inability to intervene to save his family, the only options bad and the consequence of decisions made long ago now repaid tenfold, every crime eventually being met by its punishment.
Glasgow Film Festival continues until Sunday 8th March
