The synopsis on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “The amazing true story of Billy Moore, an English boxer incarcerated in Thailand‘s most notorious prison. Thrown into a world of drugs and violence, he finds his best chance to escape is to fight his way out in Muay Thai tournaments.”

The film starring Joe Cole premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival before being released on DirecTV Cinema in the UK in July 2018.

The film, which has moved both critics and viewers, has been praised for the way that it manages to move audiences while showing “such horrible human brutality”.

Bangkok Post wrote: “A Prayer Before Dawn is remarkable in its brutalist mode, in sketching the grainy lives of these jailbirds…to see how far the body, and in effect the soul, could endure the inhuman hellhole that is their everyday surroundings.”

Herald Sun said: “A punishing, uncompromising prison drama of the highest order…The level of authenticity achieved here is gut-punchingly raw.”

Nearly a decade after its release, viewers are still blown away by the film.

One viewer wrote on Rotten Tomatoes: “Absolutely amazing movie. Joe Cole was captivating, with barely any dialogue you went on the journey with him. Incredibly brutal subject matter and story but it had so so much heart, you felt like a fly on the wall. I can not congratulate the lead, Joe Cole enough he had so much presence on screen. Beautiful beautiful!”

Another, who also rated it five stars, said: “It’s very intense and I think it’s a tale that doesn’t always make it to the screen with this quality of actors but I made my 20 year old son watch it before he went over there it’s British cinema at its best and being an ex addict the whole process of unwinding from that plus the violence he faced, Tip Top.”

A third wrote: “A masterpiece of a biopic with Joe Cole’s stellar performance as Billy Moore. The best fighter drama film since Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby. A definite must-see film.”

A Prayer Before Dawn is now available on Netflix.