The Underground Railroad – ★★★½

The 10-part US Series “The Underground Railroad” by the acclaimed director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight; 2016 / If Beale Street Could Talk; 2018) is available for streaming on Prime Video.

It is an adaption of the Pulitzer Winning historical fiction novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead and follows Cora and Caesar trying to flee from slavery on a plantation in the southern US state of Georgia in the 1800s by means of said Underground Railroad, a secret passageway to safety.

The show is beautifully shot but disturbing at the same time and explores the horrors of slavery and racism mixing history and fiction. The visual style resembles the one of Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” (2013) but it is more graphic und relentless in it’s depiction of violence. The fictional setting of the second episode also brings 2016s “Handmaid’s Tale” to mind with it’s dystopian undertone. Definitely worth checking out.