Most disturbing drama of an enslaved man

WITH its heart of darkness laid bare for all to see, it's no wonder that Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave is an Oscar frontrunner. It's already leading the 19th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards with 13 nominations, as well as the Golden Globes with seven.

This unflinching drama about the African-American slave trade unfolds in a pool of blood, sweat and tears. It's designed to be disturbing for a good reason and there's no way anyone will walk out of the cinema unaffected.

Adapted by John Ridley (Three Kings) from the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, a New York State-born free black who was tricked into slavery in the Deep South during the 19th century, 12 Years a Slave is a brutal expose of a very dark period in American history. It's a topic that has been dealt with numerous times on both the big screen (Quentin Tarantino's recent Django Unchained) and on TV (Roots) but McQueen's treatment still manages …