Captured French Resistance fighter Lieutenant Fontaine awaits execution for espionage in a stark Nazi prison in Lyon. He must plot an extraordinary escape, complicated by the questions of whom to trust, and what lies beyond the small portion of the prison he is housed in.

With the simplest of concepts and sparest of techniques, Robert Bresson made one of the most suspenseful jailbreak films of all time. Based on the account of an imprisoned French Resistance leader, this taut and methodical marvel follows the fictional Fontaine’s single-minded pursuit of freedom, detailing the planning and execution of his escape with gripping precision. A  work of intense spirituality and humanity, the film remains one of Bresson's most acclaimed and influential works.

"Watching a film like A Man Escaped is like a lesson in the cinema. It teaches by demonstration all the sorts of things that are not necessary in a movie. By implication, it suggests most of the things we're accustomed to are superfluous. I can't think of a single unnecessary shot in A Man Escaped."

Roger Ebert