12 Years A Slave

2013, 134 minutes

Touching and thrilling movie based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup. In 1841, while being a free, black man in New York, he was kidnapped by two men and sold as a slave. 

Halfway the nineteenth century. America is on the verge of a civil war between the liberal North and the conservative South. Solomon Northup is an instructed black man with a gift for music. Together with his wife and children, he lives as a free man in Saratoga, New York. His happiness takes a bitter turn when one day he meets two men who promise him a good job.
The men drug him and take him to the South to be sold off as a slave. Solomon tries to convince his owners that he is a free man, but nobody listens to him. His desperate attempts to escape are all in vain and he is increasingly subjected to atrocities. But then he meets a Canadian who will change his life forever.

Credits

Themes
Democracy and politics, Racism and/or discrimination, Slavery, War and armed conflict
Suitable for
havo/vwo - bovenbouw
mbo - niveau 1 & 2
mbo - niveau 3 & 4
Director
Steve McQueen
Country of production
United States, United Kingdom
Type
Fiction
Duration
134 minutes
Year
2013
Age rating
16 angst discriminatie geweld grof taalgebruik