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...

1560, Peru. In a beautiful poetic opening scene the conquistadors cross an Andes pass, situated between the peaks and the valleys, between conquered land and unexplored forests, between 'heaven' and 'earth', shrouded in mists, they make their way down a narrow path. Aguirre's meglomania grows as around him his comrades mutiny and die in his search for the lost city of El Dorado. Herzog's best film, an unforgetable tour de force. Made before the director himself gave in to meglomania on a later t 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...

A great general, victorious in battle and loved by the Roman people, Maximus finds himself enslaved by the twisted and psychopathic emperor to be, Commodus. The proud General is reduced to a common gladiator, but his extraordinary prowess in the Arena brings him back to Rome and a vengeful showdown with Commodus. Gladiator is an entertaining action epic, with all the grandeur and heroic angst of classics such as "Spartacus" that it seeks to emulate. find out more...

A costume drama/biopic of US President Thomas Jefferson's earlier days in pre-revolutionary Paris, his scandalous private life, love for a beautiful socialite and his secret affair with his slave girl. From the highly successful Merchant/Ivory team. find out more...

This lavishly photographed and costumed action-drama-epic sticks to what we know of Genghis's early years, although that's not much, telling the story of how a young tribal boy overcame many obstacles, including slavery, to become a legendary conqueror. The widescreen suits this 'big sky' country and there is something remarkably authentic about the yurts and the costumes. Chosen for marriage, at the age of nine, by a female child, Borte, while he thinks he's doing the chosing, she becomes one o 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...