British actor David Oyelowo (The Butler) gives a magnificent performance as Martin Luther King in this urgent dramatisation of a pivotal episode in America’s civil rights movement.
While the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act had desegregated the South by law, it remained divided by racial prejudice and hostile to black voters, even in majority black towns like Selma. It was here that Dr. King chose to stage a series of voters’ rights marches to convince President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to pass the Voting Rights Act which ensured constitutional rights for all.
Ava DuVernay’s handsome and dignified film paints a deeply compassionate portrait of this often painful and violent struggle, drawing subtle and startling parallels to current rifts in racial relations in the US.
With an outstanding ensemble cast including British actor Carmen Ejogo as Coretta King, Cuba Gooding Jnr, hip hop artist Common and bright new talent Tessa Thompson, this is a biopic with bite.
Making history both in front of and behind the camera, Selma’s director Ava Duvernay is the first African American woman to be nominated for a Best Director Golden Globe and the film is deservedly nominated for a best picture Academy Award.
