The Birth of a Nation

Cert: 15A; Now showing

The first casualty of war is truth and nowhere is that evinced as well as in the (mostly American) responses to Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation. Parker directs, co-writes (with Jean McGianni Celestin) and stars in this film about slavery which begins with the immortal line “based on a true story” and which has polarised critics at a time when the race war in the US is raging again, politically at least.

It opens in Virginia in the early 1800s with a young slave boy who is believed to be special. As a child he plays with the slave owner’s son, Samuel, and is selected by the mistress of the house (Penelope Ann Miller) to live with the family and learn to read selected passages from the Bible which lays the ground for him to become preacher to his fellow slaves as a young man Nat (Parker). His erstwhile friend Samuel (Armie Hammer), proves a gentle enough plantation owner and in a slightly odd dynamic, Nat marries fellow slave Cherry (Aja Naomi King). It’s a relatively pleasant existence but when Nat is rented out as a preacher to subdue other slaves he learns just how cruel slavery can be.

Nat Turner did exist, Parker’s version of him is a bit of a hagiography but that doesn’t detract from the power of the story. Evil was perpetrated daily and defended to death. The causes and effects of that are still huge in the US and it’s a conversation they need to have. As a film it is nowhere near as harrowing as 12 Years a Slave. It’s manipulative but engaging.