Convict is a 2014 crime drama film set in an Australian prison, directed by George Basha, packaged on Blu-ray.
Ray who has been on duty in the Middle East believes in his country and he has great pride in his life as a soldier. In prison he comes face to face with the realities of a world he has sought to avoid. He sees himself not as an Arabic man, but a man whose life and decisions are driven by his moral code.
Convict Movie Review
by Andrew L. Urban, urbancinefile.com.au
Clearly with something to say, George Basha returns to themes he wrote about so sharply in his 2009 debut feature, The Combination: the cultural and personal conflicts that are magnified through the prism of prison and crime and ethnic gangs and official corruption … Again working with David Field in the director's chair, Basha's Convict presents as a brutal story of a decent man – Ray (Basha) – buffeted by fate and challenged to not only survive but retain that decency. And to stay true to his own code.
The film may be criticised by the Departments of Corrective Services for portraying prison wardens in an outdated, barbaric manner (except for a couple of good men) and not true to the new image of decent, reconstructed prison officers. But the upside is that youths will be turned off crime to avoid landing in a jail such as this; the foreboding old Parramatta Jail.
By its very nature the film raises the thorny old questions about the treatment of prisoners: should jail be so tortuous as well as depriving crims of their liberty?
Perhaps more to Basha's purpose are the acidic truths he puts in Ray's mouth about the prison's Arabic gang, led by the grandstanding Mazen (Johnny Nesser). In one of the film's most dramatic scenes (and there are several), Ray confronts Mazen – both with a solid ‘support group’ of muscle behind them – to expose him as a self-serving hypocrite who profits from the gang he ironically calls ‘family’ and whose members he will have killed just to make a point…
…Technicals and design are all first class, as is Jodi Phillis' score – and some great original songs by various artists, including one by Field.