12 Years a Slave

Based on a true story that took place in 1850, this film follows Solomon Northup, a cultured Black musician—and free man—who lives with his family in New York. After sharing a drink with two strangers, Solomon finds that he has been drugged and kidnapped, then sold into slavery in the South on a plantation in Louisiana. Refusing to give up hope, Solomon watches as everyone around him succumbs to violence, emotional abuse and despair. He then decides to take incredible risks and trust the least likely people in an attempt to regain his freedom and reunite with his family.