There is much to recommend Selma besides the lure of Martin Luther King. It is creative and well told; never indolent and always interesting; grandiose yet intimate.

DuVernay – through a wonderfully slender chronological window – orchestrates a stylish screenplay to produce a film overflowing with urgency and mind-blowing rhetoric, without dictating audience insight.

Excluding the jarring documentary-style onscreen text, and swaggering historical epilogue of ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’, the film’s abiding impression is of complexity and a sense of humour.

Amongst an able cast, Oyelowo is majestic, inhabiting the role of Dr. King with detail, sensitivity and power.

There is nothing saccharine about Selma. DuVernay does justice to the illustrious subject matter… and that’s no mean feat.

RATING: 4/5

INFORMATION

CAST: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson

DIRECTOR: Ava DuVernay

WRITER: Paul Webb

SYNOPSIS: Selma chronicles the events surrounding the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches undertaken by Martin Luther King and the SLCC in order to secure equal voting rights in Alabama. 

We greatly appreciate that a preview screening to Selma was provided by Feref and Pathé.