Pacto de Fuga is a Chilean film from the year 2020, by director David Albala.

It is inspired by the events of a prison escape on January 30, 1990, known as Operation Success, which was carried out by 49 prisoners from the Santiago Public Prison, among them several members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front who were serving sentences for armed actions during the military Dictatorship, including seven who were sentenced to death for the attack on Augusto Pinochet.

The opening was scheduled for October 24, 2019, but due to the social upheaval in the Country, this was moved to January 23, 2020. ^[1]

Filmed at the former La Serena Prison, Buin Prison, Calera de Tango, San Bernardo and Studios. An effective work of recreation of the prison atmosphere was carried out with actors in a previous work to the filming. David Albala was assisted by one of the real protagonists of the escape, former member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, Raúl Blanchet, who could not see the finished film since he died during post-production, at the end of May 2019.

The Art Direction in charge of Lionel G. Medina consisted mainly in bringing and remembering, based on different Visual, physical and artistic resources, the necessary period of the political and social context of that time and also to faithfully recreate the atmospheres of the disappeared Ex-Public Jail of Santiago, combining realism and fiction. The general colorimetric concept of the Art Department in Ambientación (Carolina Lazo), Utilería (Simón Briceño), Gráfica (Francisca Palominos), Vestuario (Nicole Guzmán) and Escenografía contemplated not occupying the color red inside the prison (cautioned from the pre, filming and post), a representative and iconic color of the political prisoners, this time, just as they were "annulled and repressed in this space," only appearing in red when the political prisoners reach their Freedom (bus, traffic lights, red ink, etc). ^[2]

During the last years of the military regime, a group of FPMR militants planned and carried out the escape of fifty political prisoners from the Santiago Public Prison. 24 prisoners dug a tunnel more than 80 meters long, and managed to hide 55 tons of earth inside the prison during more than a year of construction, using only a Screwdriver. The plot focuses on finding an escape plan, choosing a trustworthy Group, avoiding the typical inconveniences of such a work and maintaining secrecy so as not to be discovered. Neither the common prisoners in the nearby cells, nor the gendarmes who watched them daily discovered the plan. The struggle is complicated by having to live with the arbitrariness of the military justice and the repressive agencies of the dictatorship who had power over the civil judicial system and the prison System. Finally, 49 prisoners managed to achieve freedom in one of the most surprising escapes in Chilean criminal History.

At the end of Pinochet's dictatorship, new political prisoners arrived at the Santiago Public Prison.

Among them were León Vargas (Benjamín Vicuña) and Rafael Giménez (Roberto Farías), who tried to obtain specific cells for Communication.

At the same time, the prosecutor Ad Hoc Andrade (Mateo Iribarren) and the warden (Willy Semler) received the defense lawyer Fabiola Pizarro (Amparo Noguera) from CODEPU, who came to see the situation of the Prisoners.

The conspirators begin to imagine a tunnel and its difficulties, calculating that they will need to remove 50 tons of earth to achieve their objective.

They decide to create a forado on the roof of a cell to hide the earth.

They create a false piece of wall to cover the hole.

With different procedures, they can seal the hole with a color similar to the wall and keep suspicions away from guards and other prisoners.

They create a series of secret signals to warn each other and do the job.

Paulina Baeza (Francisca Gavilán), ex-wife of the Frente Rafael Jiménez, will be the one to pull the strings with the other members of the FPMR and the Communist Party so that they can give logistical help to the prisoners when the escape takes place.

During family visits, the conflict between the struggle and respect for each other's revolutionary ideals will Arise, with strained family relations. There are a variety of situations such as: separated couples, family members who do not understand political options, pessimistic vision of the future, suffering of Children, etc. ^[3]