A Prayer Before Dawn review

Based on the memoirs of Liverpudlian criminal-turned-author Billy Moore, it follows the young, volatile Thai-style boxer and drug addict who makes what meagre money he can in Thailand’s dangerous underground boxing world. Before long he is imprisoned for one bit of illicit activity too many.

He’s thrust into a world savage beyond what he thought possible; the conditions are horrendous, with prisoners packed into dirty cells where rapes, beatings and murders are commonplace. Barely speaking a word of the language, Moore tries his best to survive, eventually agreeing to represent the prison in boxing competitions.

Clearly influenced by films like Raging Bull and Midnight Express, director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire skilfully immerses you in the prison life and the vicious violence therein. He uses lingering and up-close-and-personal camera shots to instil a creeping uneasiness that makes the viewer want to look away but feel like they absolutely can’t.

The assured sense of authenticity often makes it feel like a documentary – outside of Cole the cast is made up mostly of non-professional actors – which is an effective approach when depicting a true story with so much grit and harshness already built in. Cole himself brings the story to life with a performance of brute force power and convincing physicality.

It’s never an easy watch but nor should it be, both immersing you in a world of brutalising violence while also keenly examining the psychological effects on those that know nothing else in life. Is violence wrong when it’s a means of survival? And is there a fundamental difference when it takes the form of sport?

Sauvaire follows up impressive feature debut Johnny Mad Dog with an uncompromisingly brutal cinematic experience, coarse and unwavering in its depictions of what it takes to survive a hard life, and one that savagely breaks through your typical tough prison drama to reach something approaching enlightenment in Moore’s quite remarkable true story.