‘The Underground Railroad’ reveals the untold power of enslaved Africans. As director Barry Jenkins planned to adapt Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the Underground Railroad into a limited series, he continued to learn the same thing: impossible.
Jenkins realized that it would be physically and psychologically exhausting. He finally got over the doubts and “The Underground Railroad” was the outcome.
The project is a flawless image of Cora, a woman who leaves Georgia’s plantation only for a relentless bounty hunter to pursue her.
On the way, she has to face the wrath of her mother who abandoned her at the plantation when she was 10.
The ten-hour series has become “the most satisfying creative experience of my life,” says Jenkins, who received an Oscar for “Moonlight” in 2017 and was again nominated for “If Beale Street Could Talk” the following year.
It was also the greatest challenge he ever had to encounter.
“The story is so, so large and wide-ranging. Before doing this, I spoke to Steven Soderbergh and Cary Fukunaga, who did ‘True Detective’ and ‘The’ Nick, ‘and they both said’ It’s impossible. It’s going to kill you because there’s no way to properly prep that many hours of any story, ‘” he stated in a recent interview. “It was going to be a test of my skills to do that.”
It was also an irresistible chance “to re-contextualize how we see my ancestors,” as he puts it.
For him, slave people demonstrated “one of the world’s best public acts of parenthood.”
“If everyone had armed and wanted to revolt, everyone would have died and all these children would have been left behind,” he added.
“The choice was to protect these children from the confidence that this thing would stop at some point and these children would have to carry the legacy.”
Jenkins said the most critical element in his output was to defend himself, the actors, and the crew from “barbarism.”
To ensure that, a counselor was appointed and the cast claims Jenkins went through a lot to make sure they felt they could tell whether they were too near to the line or really wanted a break.
“The emotions that were produced were all those that the character dealt with, ranging from rejection, abandonment, a huge sense of loss, running from self and all of that,” said Thuso Mbedu, a newcomer from South Africa playing Cora.
“I had to be extra aware of who I am and where I was personally at every step because those are very heavy states of being to carry and being someone who struggled with depression in 2016, I personally couldn’t afford to allow myself to get into that space, especially because we’re going to shoot for 10 months.”
“It raised a lot of anger” for Sheila Atim about “injustice and also the realization that racial-based oppression remains an issue and racism remains a thing in the world.
This is part of what was driving Jenkins and the cast. They hope their work will contribute to further racism, discrimination, and oppression discussions.
On 14 May, Amazon Prime begins streaming ‘The Underground Railroad.’
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