Based on a true story of a man wrongly enslaved for 12 years.

Rating: Null/10 (12 June 2014)

It was 1841 and black slavery was still going strong in the USA, particularly in the South. Much of the story here is set in Southern Louisiana and was actually filmed there, including in New Orleans proper. A street was even blocked off and dirt brought in to simulate an old upstate New York town in one scene. Several of the old plantation homes in surrounding areas were used for filming.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, who received an Oscar nomination for his role, is Solomon Northup, a free black man with a wife and two small children in upstate New York. He plays violin and during one period when his wife was gone away for a few weeks to work as a cook, he is befriended by two men who say they are with a traveling troupe, a circus of sorts, and Solomon can make good money with his violin playing. He goes with them and, after a night of too much drinking, awakes to find himself shackled.
He had been kidnapped and then put on a boat down to New Orleans. He ended up having to work as a slave, and also to conceal his true identity, for black men who could read and write were a threat and would likely be hanged to their death.
This is based on a true story of the real Solomon Northup who was forced into illegal slavery for 12 years. It is a good story, it shows probably very accurately what slavery was like. I do have objections, many scenes move very slowly, and scenes of beatings or near hangings dwell on the horror of it a bit too long. We know it was evil and wrong, we don't need to see so much graphic gore.
But overall it is a well-told story, and of course it won the Oscar for best picture. To me the best actor here was Brit Michael Fassbender as the cruel slave owner.
SPOILERS: After 12 years Solomon was working on a project when he came across an abolitionist from Canada (Brad Pitt), and told him his story, asking him to contact people he knew in New York. Later someone came for him with law enforcement, Solomon was able to return to his home and family in New York. Historically, it isn't totally clear what his fate was after that.