Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Benedict Cumberbatch star in Steve McQueen's triple-Oscar-winning historical drama that explores the horrific daily realities of slavery in pre-Civil War America.
The narrative is based on freeborn African American Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir. In 1841, Northup left upstate New York for a brief job as a violinist in Washington DC. But the contract is a ruse and he wakes from a drugged sleep to find himself the property of first a slave dealer and then plantation owners in the southern states.
The first of these, William Ford is relatively humane, but Ford sells Northup to Edwin Epps, who is a vicious tyrant. As time passes and injustice is heaped upon appalling injustice, Northup must find the strength to cope with his predicament - and the hope that he can escape his terrible fate.
12 Years a Slave is a Film programme that first aired in 2013 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
