``A Prayer Before Dawn'' uses thorough camera work to transport the audience into a Inferno prison, with a tremendous sense of reality that leaves you speechless.

A Prayer Before Dawn Synopsis

British boxer Billy Moore came to Thailand to get a fresh start in life. However, he became addicted to drugs and lost sight of his original goal, and started participating in boxing matches held in the underworld. He spent all the fight money he earned on heroin and yaba (a drug circulating in Thailand), and spent his days wandering aimlessly around the city. One day, the police searched his house, he was arrested, and he was incarcerated in a prison in Chiang Mai. He didn't speak the language, and he had no one to rely on. He slept on the floor, which was overflowing with prisoners, and was pushed and chased by the guards like an animal. Meanwhile, Billy got caught up in a fight and was isolated in a cell. He was then transferred to a large cell where the most violent prisoners in the prison gathered. It was a living Inferno where rape and murder were rampant, and the weak were quickly slaughtered by the other prisoners. One day, and another. Billy somehow manages to survive and escape from Inferno, but this time he becomes addicted to heroin given to him by a prison guard, and in exchange for drugs, he agrees to lynch other prisoners, and ends up in solitary confinement again. Billy is about to lose hope, but through the bars of his cell he sees a group of men running. Their physiques and faces seem somehow different from the other prisoners. They are prisoner athletes belonging to the "Muay Thai Team" set up within the facility. Billy decides to leave his cell and visits their training location, but is sternly turned away. Billy desperately persists. "I want to fight. That's all I have anymore!" Finally allowed to become a member of the "Muay Thai Team," Billy trains hard as if he were reborn, gradually opening up to his teammates and learning not only Muay Thai techniques but also the spirit of the sport...

British boxer Billy Moore is incarcerated in a Thai prison where the worst criminals await, for possession of heroin and yaba (a drug circulating in Thailand). "A Prayer Before Dawn" is a prison drama based on Moore's own real-life experiences. However, what the audience experiences through Billy is a brutal picture of Inferno that is different from conventional prison movies. First, let me introduce the gist of the film.

Index

• The horrors of violent prison life await
• Handheld cameras and long takes for dramatic effect
• Who is A24, the new production company that discovered this film?

The horrors of violent prison life await

Immediately after being admitted, Billy is searched naked, his mouth is checked, and he is locked in a large cell. There, the prisoners are lying on top of each other. Despite this, they do not notice that the man next to him is already dead. The body is quietly carried away. Billy is put in solitary confinement after getting into a fight at the water fountain. After leaving the cell, Billy is next in line to a large cell reserved for the most evil people. There he is greeted with rough shoving and ordered to do 20 push-ups in front of the excited crowd. They are screaming in Thai, which neither Billy nor the audience can understand. Of course, there are no subtitles to explain.

The room is even darker because all the prisoners have dark tattoos all over their brown bodies and faces. At night, Billy is forced to watch a prisoner being raped by the men as a warning to others. This means that he must not tell anyone and that he must obey completely. The next morning, the man who was raped is found hanging. Everyone starts getting ready for the morning as if nothing had happened.

"A Prayer Before Dawn" (c) 2017 - Meridian Entertainment - Senorita Films SAS

It's not just violence that is the norm. Prison guards, who should be cracking down on drug possession, are providing drugs to prisoners in exchange for bribes. Prison guards also secretly sell drugs to prisoners. What else can you call this Inferno?

Inferno also exists in traditional prison movies. Older prisoners torture newcomers as a form of greeting, teaching them the prison caste system through their bodies. Guards use merciless violence to enforce submission, and the moment of release or escape comes soon after. However, in "A Prayer Before Dawn," the protagonist cannot easily escape from Inferno. Violence is repeated like a loop, and Billy will wander forever in a maze with no exit in sight.