Netflix subscribers can’t get enough of a gripping sports drama film based on an inspiring and hard-hitting true story.

The 2017 film A Prayer Before Dawn was added to the streaming service last Tuesday (20th January) and has now shot up the top 10 charts, currently taking the number four position.

Directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, it stars Peaky Blinders and Gangs of London star Joe Cole as real-life boxer Billy Moore, based on his memoir A Prayer Before Dawn: My Nightmare in Thailand’s Prisons.

But what happens in this gruelling sports biopic and what is the real Moore doing now?

Let’s take a closer look at this exhilarating real-life story.

What happens in A Prayer Before Dawn?

The film is based on Billy’s lived experience incarcerated in Thailand after being arrested and charged for possession of stolen goods and a firearm. Although the real prisons where he was detained declined permission to film inside, the production team used Thailand’s Nakhon Pathom prison, which is now a museum, as a stand-in.

Starting from his troubled beginnings as a heroin addict, the film follows Billy as he becomes an inmate at Klong Prem prison in Bangkok, Thailand around 2007 and endures a number of horrifying experiences.

This includes moving to a crowded cell led by violent gang leader Keng (played by Panya Yimmumphai), where he’s forced to sleep next to a dead inmate, and witnessing a brutal sexual assault at knifepoint.

Billy eventually tries to befriend a transgender inmate named Fame (Pornchanok Mabklang), but his own mental health spirals and he develops a dependency on hard drugs. After being bribed by a prison officer with ya ba (a drug cocktail of methamphetamine and caffeine), he beats two Muslim prisoners close to death.

His experience also includes being driven into a violent frenzy after being refused painkillers, biting a correction officer’s neck in the process. Following a suicide attempt, which Billy narrowly survives when another inmate finds him cutting his wrists with a shiv, he’s desperate for an outlet to channel his anger and desperation and decides to join the prison’s Muay Thai boxing team with the help of Fame, with whom he develops an intimate bond.

Prison warden Preecha (Vithaya Pansringarm) is impressed with Billy’s performance and decides to put him forward to represent the prison at the national Muay Thai tournament, becoming the first-ever foreigner to do so.

Despite becoming close with the other inmates, Keng and his men gang up on him and threaten him with a pin prick attack (in which the needle or syringe is tainted with the blood of someone with a blood-borne disease) if he loses. Billy also discovers he’s suffering from a hernia caused by his drug addiction – receiving any further damage could cause intense internal bleeding.

Nevertheless, Billy is determined to compete and manages to beat his opponent by a thin margin. He is left battered and bruised after taking several blows to the stomach and even passes out after vomiting blood once the match is over.

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He’s quickly rushed to hospital outside of prison grounds and thankfully makes a recovery. Billy decides to sneak out and wander around Bangkok, but he soon reconsiders. He returns to hospital, where he meets his father, portrayed by the real Billy Moore. The two share a smile.

The closing titles reveal that Billy served three more years in Thailand before being transferred to a UK prison and released on amnesty by the King of Thailand in October 2010. He has since dedicated his life to helping other addicts while staying the course of his own recovery.

As for Billy’s life now, the former boxer is believed to reside in Liverpool, where he grew up. An interview with Billy with Big Issue North in 2021 confirmed he has a son, Albie, with partner Michelle.

A Prayer Before Dawn is available to stream on Netflix.

If you have been affected by the issues mentioned in this article, call the Samaritans in the UK on 116 123 or visit a local Samaritans branch for confidential support.