WATCH | 1970s Cape Town resurrected in Australia for apartheid movie shoot
Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, woke up on Wednesday to find an "algemene handelaar" in one of its city centre streets, quite close to a "bakkery".
Outside, there was a "whites only" taxi and a double-decker bus emblazoned with an ad for FC Kitsklaar Koffee "vir die kleur vat jy steun".
Pirie St #adelaide is converted to 1978 Cape Town. Come for a walk with Spence. @ali__clarke @DavidBevanSA pic.twitter.com/iYAqwJGqmH
— ABC Adelaide (@abcadelaide) March 12, 2019
Apartheid Cape Town was revived in Adelaide's Pirie Street for filming of Escape from Pretoria, which stars Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe in the role of anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin.
CA numberplates adorned old vehicles in the street, coin-operated parking meters were installed and even the magazines on sale at a hawker's stall were made to look authentically 1970s, with one clearly imitating Scope.
In 1979, Jenkin, Stephen Lee and Alex Moumbaris fled Pretoria Central prison by cutting wooden keys and using them to open 10 doors.
Jenkin, now 70, related the escape in autobiography Inside Out: Escape From Pretoria Prison, which is the basis for the script being shot in Adelaide.
Daniel Radcliffe film 'Escape From Pretoria' transforms Adelaide CBD street into 1970s South Africa. #7News pic.twitter.com/QGDBcYoHaD
— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) March 13, 2019
He said was disappointed that the movie, financed with the assistance of the South Australia Film Corporation, was not being filmed in SA. "They were going to but there were endless problems with the department of arts and culture," he said.
"In the end the producers got fed up and decided to go to Australia. It's more expensive but at least things happen there. It's very sad, because it would have been great to have South African actors and genuine South African accents in the film."
Photographs and videos of Radcliffe on set began to emerge last week when the shoot moved to a public street outside a railway station.
Pirie Street transformed into 1970s Cape Town, complete with apartheid-era attitudes, for Escape From Pretoria filming in #Adelaide. https://t.co/JMEM0BZCBh pic.twitter.com/FKA5Ry6vIn
— Malcolm Sutton (@malcolmsutton) March 13, 2019
#Adelaide transformed into apartheid-era Cape Town for Daniel Radcliffe movie https://t.co/XCHVuQsHIL #HarryPotter pic.twitter.com/tDuKtUGZID
— ABC Adelaide (@abcadelaide) March 13, 2019
the only thing that’s ever happened to adelaide pic.twitter.com/9m4c2Vmc9Q
— 𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘢 (@wolveswebber) March 13, 2019
Vehicles for the #EscapeFromPretoria shoot on location in Pirie St #Adelaide pic.twitter.com/ZXjxsZyY5y
— Melanie Usher (@mjgal) March 13, 2019
Daniel Radcliffe is shackled while filming Escape From Pretoria in Adelaide#DanielRadcliffe pic.twitter.com/t9X3T1crKi
— Danielradcliffelondon (@Danielr40251830) March 11, 2019