Judging by the fact that you’re currently visiting a site title TheMovies.co.za, I’m hazarding a guess that you tend to follow any big hub-bub that breaks out in the industry. And even if you were just paying the most cursory attention to this year’s Sundance Film Festival, you more than likely heard all the noise surrounding The Birth of a Nation.
Directed, written and starred in by Nate Parker, the movie about a hellacious 19th century slave revolt in the American south received heaps of praise – including a rapturous standing ovation after its screening – when it debuted at the festival, with studios entering a bidding war to snap it up. Fox Searchlight would eventually be the winner, picking up the film’s distribution rights for a record setting $17.5 million. Interestingly, Netflix actually offered $20 million, but Parker and co turned down the streaming service in favour of a traditional theatrical release.
And now that theatrical release is imminent as Fox Searchlight gears up to push The Birth of a Nation into focus in preparation for the upcoming awards season (in which many people have already pegged the film as a favourite to bring home some gold). And with that promotional ramp-up comes the film’s first powerful trailer, which you can view below.
Set against the antebellum South, THE BIRTH OF A NATION follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities – against himself and his fellow slaves – Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.
The Birth of a Nation also stars Armie Hammer, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Boone Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Dwight Henry, Aja Naomi King, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Gabrielle Union and is scheduled for release on October 7, 2016.
Last Updated: April 18, 2016
