LBY UNDERGROUND RAILWAY
Gender: Dramatic
Directed by Barry Jenkins. With Thuso Mbedu, Chase W. Dillon, Joel Edgerton, Sheila Atim. On Prime Video
Slavery and the long struggle to obtain minimum civil rights represent the narrative heart of The underground railway, adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name.
By acclaimed director such as Barry Jenkins (Oscar for Moonlight in 2016), at the debut in the long television series, this product was born atypical for format and aesthetic treatment of a drama rooted in American history.
In ten one-hour episodes, Jenkins reconstructs, fishing in the genre of ucronia (which proposes realistic events but not based on facts, ed) an alternative and possible story of liberation from slavery, lingering on feelings, conflicts, on the sense of hope and despair of an era.
The series tells the point of view of Cora (Thuso Mbedu) who, with Caesar, manages to escape from a Georgia plantation on an underground route beaten by a steam train.
Sheila Atim in a moment from Barry Jenkins’ Underground Railway series (photo by Atsushi Nishijima).
Through Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee, the series is a metaphorical journey in search of freedom; punctuated by dilated rhythms and unsettling and disturbing directorial choices, The underground railway it is a great human and historical adventure, an epic that also speaks to today’s injustices.
For those who love period dramas and do not disdain to immerse themselves in the struggles and violence of the past.
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