Amistad

Pearl, 12.50am

Directed by Steven Spielberg, Amistad is based on the little-known saga of a 19th-century Spanish slave ship taken over in a bloody revolt by its cargo of captured African slaves. After the slaves are caught and imprisoned, their leader, Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), unable to understand the language or court system of America, tries to communicate his desire to return home to his defence lawyer, Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey), and former slave Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman). Also starring Anthony Hopkins, Nigel Hawthorne, Chiwetel Ejiofor (above right with Freeman) and Anna Paquin. (1997)