Set in early 19th century Wallachia, when a local policeman, Costandin, is hired by Iordache, a boyar (local noble), to find Carfin, a Gypsy slave who had run away from the boyar's estate after having an affair with his wife, Sultana. Costandin sets out to find the fugitive, beginning a journey full of adventures. Gypsy slavery lasted from the 14th century up until the middle of the 19th century, a situation which is very little known and almost nonexistent in the pu find out more...

Inside this conventionally structured biopic resides an extraordinary story of an extraordinary man. William Wilberforce was the parliamentary spokesman for a group of radicalised young Evangelists (and Quakers), who despised the money politics and corruption of late 18th Century UK politics and who fought for many reformist policies, the most notable of which was the one this film annotates, the abolition of slavery, a process that took years of political skulduggery and the slow passage of find out more...

A group of abducted Africans break free from their shackles aboard a Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, so setting the scene for a lengthy courtroom drama played out against a backdrop of 19th Century slavery. Matthew McConaughy is the noble young lawyer fighting for the slaves' freedom, while Anthony Hopkins is mesmerising as decrepit former President John Quincy Adams. Superb sets and an authentic atmosphere, and it's pretty gruesome at times too. Typically Spielberg-esque epic. find out more...

A faithful adaptation of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Set in Cincinnati just after the Civil War a tormented ex-slave strugglies to come to terms with her past. Danny Glover is the old friend who reappears to help Sethe in her quest for inner peace, but it's the spooky arrival of the ethereal Beloved (Thandie Newton), which may finally allow Sethe to lay her ghosts to rest. Beautifully made, if a little laboured. find out more...

A Brazilian farmer turned bandit is employed by a plantation owner to keep his restless slave population in check, but Cobra Verde's eye for the women brings down the wrath of his boss when one by one the man's daughters become tainted by the seed of the bandit's loins. Dismissed to West Africa to rekindle the slave trade, Cobra Verde finds himself facing the murderous intentions of a local despot, while amassing an army of Amazonian warriors to fulfil his mission. Taken from Bruce Chatwin's ‘Th find out more...

In 1863, Mississippi farmer Newt Knight serves as a medic for the Confederate Army. Opposed to slavery, Knight would rather help the wounded than fight the Union. After his nephew dies in battle, Newt returns home to Jones County to safeguard his family but is soon branded an outlaw deserter. Forced to flee, he finds refuge with a group of runaway slaves hiding out in the find out more...

Manipulative English mercenary Sir William Walker is posted to a Portuguese colony in the Caribbean and, once there, he uses his skills to engineer a slave revolt as part of his calculated plans for the English to seize control. 'Queimada' is a fine example of Pontecorvo's unique filmmaking talent and Brando's portrayal of a man who is both a gentleman and a scoundrel, a revolutionary and a colonialist, ranks amongst his best performances. Ennio Morricone's haunting music underscores a very powe find out more...

An ambitious but competently-handled Civil War epic from versatile director Ang Lee . A fairly heavyweight historical drama, it focuses on the Bushwackers, a rebel southern militia group headed by Maguire, Ulrich and Rhys-Meyers, who're conducting a guerilla war, and black scout Jeffrey Wright, who's forced to fight for the pro-slavery cause. Worthy and well-crafted, but light entertainment it ain't. find out more...

An epic tale spanning 200 years, from Kunta Kinti's enslavement to his descendants' liberation, Roots is a dramatisation of author Alex Haley's family line. When originally aired back in the late 1970s Roots was one of the most watched and critically lauded television dramatisations of the decade, in part because it provided its largely white audience with a palatable history lesson that many had been hitherto reluctant to learn. To watch the series now it seems a little bit over dramatised and find out more...

An epic tale spanning 200 years, from Kunta Kinti's enslavement to his descendants' liberation, Roots is a dramatisation of author Alex Haley's family line. When originally aired back in the late 1970s Roots was one of the most watched and critically lauded television dramatisations of the decade, in part because it provided its largely white audience with a palatable history lesson that many had been hitherto reluctant to learn. To watch the series now it seems a little bit over dramatised and find out more...