1943; Hungary is one of the last nations to have its Jewish population rounded up and sent to the Nazi death and labour camps. This is the semi-autobiographical story of one 14-year-old boy and his tale of survival from deportation to Buchenwald and on through liberation and the culture shock of his return to Budapest. Told without resort to emotion we follow our hero and others cling on to what scraps of humanity that they can against the total horror surrounding them. Lajos Koltai's film ranks find out more...

The tale of two men banged up for years in the notorious French penal colony Devil's Island. Two escape bids by one of them results in years of solitary confinement but make him simply more determined to flee, even as old age approachs. The ultimate prison escape movie loosely based on a true story. find out more...

The tale of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's last official executioner, a man who personally dispatched 608 men and women, including various Nazi war criminals, Timothy Evans and Ruth Ellis. Timothy Spall superbly pulls off how this rather ordinary, but distinctly odd, bloke coped emotionally and professionally with his job. An awesome period piece and a superb look into a very strange occupation. A must for anyone who liked Vera Drake. find out more...

Fascinating, factually based story of an anti-social double murderer, Robert Stroud, who used his years in the world's toughest prison to transform himself into a world-renowned ornithologist. Superb performances all round but Karl Malden is particularly riveting as the sadistic prison governer. find out more...

Guinness restores the morale of British PoWs by building a bridge which is of military value to the Japanese, and then attempts to thwart the RAF's destruction of it! A classic film which swept 7 Oscars including "Best Picture". find out more...

Colditz was the P-O-W camp where the Germans put the bad boys, the prisoners, Brits of course, who repeatedly tried to escape. This is their story; a first class tale with British stiff-upper-lips to the fore, nationalistic but heroic. find out more...

Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch is the king of counterfeiters and lives a sweet life of cards, booze and women. Eventually Salomon's luck runs out when he's arrested and thrown into a Nazi concentration camp, but it's not long before his exceptional skills are spotted and he is coerced into a counterfeit operation on a gargantuan scale; a plan to help finance the war effort and flood the British and American economies with fake currency. For the first time in his life Salomon finds himself in a mo find out more...

The greatest prisoner of war adventure of them all. Behind the barbed wire fences of Stalag Luft the Allies plan a mass break-out by digging three tunnels. Discovery by the Germans when only one is completed means the chances of escape are thin. Yet 76 make the attempt in this epic adventure.

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A truly terrible sub-TV film, supposedly based round the diaries of Captain Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the infamous "Railway of Death". Despite the reality of the experiences these British, Aussie and American prisoners stay remarkably well fed, free of jungle sores etc, while occasionally acting incredibly stupidly, having very nasty things done to them, making self-sacrifices, learning the harsh side of Bushido and spouting incredibly rubbishy meaning of life statements. find out more...

Bresson's remarkable and detailed account of the brilliantly conceived escape of imprisoned and condemned to death real-life resistance fighter Andre Devigny. The intensity of the direction is augmented superbly by the music; Mozart's Mass in C Minor. Superb. find out more...