“12 Years a Slave is child’s play compared to 500 Years a Slave,” Gomez Fuentez, its cinematographer, speaks about the film’s most uncomfortable scenes.
“Slavery has been going on for thousands of years and it’s not just black people who were slaves as depicted in 12 Years a Slave. I mean how far do you want to go back? My film sheds some light on Roman slaves, a magnificent civilisation which was built off the back of millions of slaves for over 500 years,” the film’s director Flavius Marcelus revealed in Movie Magic magazine.
Set in the heart of the Roman republic’s heyday the story revolves around slaves in Roman households, slavery markets and slaves in gladiatorial games.