The Middle Passage
The first image seen inThe Middle Passageis a spotless tropical beach. But this is paradise lost, and most of the remainder of this poetically harrowing feature is spent on a slave ship bound from the African coast to the New World. The purpose of Martinique-born director Guy Deslauriers is not to tell a story--there is no dialogue--but to impressionistically capture the horror of the "middle passage," the trans-Atlantic journey in human cargo. As the images of death and disease move by, they are augmented by narration spoken by an African--perhaps his voice is every slave's--on board. The fascinating narration, adapted by the novelist Walter Mosley (from the original French), is spoken in the hauntingly musical cadences of Djimon Hounsou (Amistad), and brings home the spiritual ruin of people separated from land and ancestors. This is a film not only of horror, but of sorrow.--Robert Horton