A stark, brutal & true masterpiece


12 Years A Slave
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch
Rated: 8/10
It is stark, it is moving and it is hugely discomforting. But A Twelve Years Slave is a masterpiece in a uniquely nagging way. Encasing America’s darkest part of history when slavery made a mockery of human dignity and ripped apart basic sensitivity, it makes it all the more painful to know that it’s based on a real story written by the slave who was once a “free Negro” living happily with his wife and two children in New York. Duped by two White tricksters into taking up an assignment in Washington DC, he is abducted, tortured, sold and taken to Louisiana as slave Blaat, a runaway from Georgia.
It’s a more than stunning performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor who plays Blaat. His eyes draw you into the deepest of emotions which churn inside you as you go through his agonising journey and incredible freedom after 12 years of sub-human existence under masters who found biblical right in torturing and subjugating Negros. A gripping display of quiet resolve and pitiable reconciliation to his plight holds this very disturbing film together, directed brilliantly by Steve McQeen. The soulful background score by Hans Zimmer is another high point of this movie showcasing the lowest of low time in human history. 
Critics in America have called this “essential cinema” and some even say such films could be sexed up to take White audiences into a guilt trip. For people like us, far removed from the harsh realities of pre-Civil War America, it is a very brutal film which makes you cringe and still gape as Black women are routinely stripped, beaten, raped and lashed till the flesh comes out of their bones. It is hard to believe that America was so monstrous in its past. Your head hangs in shame as slave Blaat, and his big teary eyes almost accuse you of being a silent spectator of such monstrosity among humans howsoever far removed you may be in geography and history to his painful, agonising life.
Oscars for this one are not enough appreciation for the brilliantly portrayed truth behind this crime against humanity that is conveniently consigned to history now. 
Source: Sunday Pioneer, 2 February, 2014

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