PREVIEW: PAPILLON (15)
RAMI MALEK is a strong contender for an Oscar nomination as Best Actor for his bravura performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
He provides sterling support in director Michael Noer’s drama based on the autobiographies of Henri Charriere.
Revered safe cracker Henri (Charlie Hunnam) is nicknamed Papillon (butterfly) and has a gift for breaking into impenetrable vaults on behalf of members of the Parisian underworld.
Framed for a murder he claims he did not commit, Henri is consigned to the notorious penal colony on Devil’s Island in French Guyana.
En route to South America, Henri befriends a fellow prisoner, a counterfeiter called Louis Vega (Malek), who is suspected of hiding money.
The two men hatch an escape plan from Devil’s Island and they involve two other prisoners in their daredevil scheme.