i go into this movie and half doubting i would like it . my doubt be unfounded and this be not a slavery movie in the hollywood sense . it be a move allegory about people and who find themselves . enslave . and it be so much more than that . it be a movie about brainwashing and about religious dogma and about the use of religion to maintain an otherwise unsupportable system . about group dynamic and and about music and and about culture and and surprisingly and for a movie of such virulent subject matter . it be about beauty . it be one of the most lushly and and beautifully filmed movie you will ever see . it be fill with iconic and magical image . because it be about magic . the magical and the wondrous and the spiritual . and it will leave you alternately stun and horrify and and amaze . it be a film of great . compassion . and great hope if you haven not see it and or be avoid it because of the subject matter and i completely understand . i do the same . i be not a big fan of film about fall down and i think look at one foot can become a habit and rehash abuse can be . it own abuse . especially when all that be portray . be the abuse . it can be something of a self indulgence . look at our talk show society and victim happily pause and recount endlessly their victimization and unable to move beyond it . i be even less of a fan of film that marginalize the past and make it into this cookie cutter one size fit all experience . alex hailey root come to mind and or go with the wind and or any number of hollywood film about the west that typically just discount the true meltingpot and sumptuous and magical founding of this still very much trouble nation . discount truth and marvel and such a . early inventor and invention that launch the industrial revolution and from elevator to traffic light to gas mask to telegaph come from this mass of wronged people . early architecture and music . the first cowboy be black and odd how that completely forget . the founder of chicago and la and these black scout and these renaissance mountain men who speak multiple language and these pioneer and who go where so call civilize men fear to tread and and make city in the wild . fighter in the revolutionary war . black . fighter in the civil war . on both side . black and yep . the south answer to the north military ploy and the emancipation proclamation . be to promise freedom for any black and his family who put on the uniform . and fought for the grey . many do . many die wear the grey . can you imagine it and that moment and a black man wear the blue and and a black man wear the grey and look across their rifle at each other and two side of a war they never make and but that they would have to end . truly a war of brother vs. brother . that be the type of truth be strange than fiction magic and that imbues every second of the early day of this nation . and it be a wonder and and an irony that very few film have ever capture that magic . sankofa be one of those few . there be a horror in the founding of this nation and this hemisphere and but there be a magic there . and there be ugliness in the founding of this nation and but there be great beauty there too . they be magical people and these men and woman and child and who american history still would demeaningly classify a slave and rather than people who be enslave and a seemingly minor distinction and but in that distinction rest acknowledge the wrong do and and the people and the people and not slave and the people . it be do to . this film be about beauty . and it about people and farmer and seamstress and griot and idler and prince and pauper and mason and painter and singer and cook and who one day find themselves . enslave . sankofa be about the people we would call slave and and their bloody fight . for humanity and freedom and under an inhuman system . for freedom and in a time of holocaust . and it be a freedom no emancipation proclamation give and but a freedom they win and the only way anything be ever win and by make the day of slavery a bloody hell for slaver and enslave . by make the cost of blood . blood . it be a film that remember their . struggle . in a time when black child be teach by a euro centric curriculum only enough to despise their history and and themselves and and groom to be only guard dog or guard and this film be an essential thing . it be about look back to go forward . and honor with every breath you take and those who die by the million and that you can have the liberty . to live good and with more liberty and than they do . it be a film that passionately . in a time where medium and and environment and and education have all betray these child . need to be see . when so many have buy into the lie of their limitation and it be a film and deeply beautiful and about living beyond . label . and it be a film not everyone will get and the bigot would not get it and and the apologist would not get it and and the supporter of the status quo and and the soulless would not get it . but we few and we happy few and child of the holocaust and we white child and black and native american and form by the mix blood of our unruly ancestor and we child of their promise and pain . for u the film be an ode and a debt . for what be do and and what remain to do . essential viewing .