Passage du milieu

It's unfortunate that an event of the magnitude of the shipment of millions of people across the Atlantic Ocean receives this sort of treatment. The movie is essentially a set of montages set to narration of an African taken captive and put on a slave ship bound across the ocean.

Unfortunately, the movie fails to really explain anything, it's an interesting mix of documentary and fiction, but the thing is dripping with appeals to pity rather than a real depiction of human beings. Pathos is everywhere, unrelenting--with brief glimmers of slave heroism. There's a real story to be told here, one that can engage the viewer with a real history and communicate the horrors of what actually happened. This isn't it. Unfortunately it's a common affliction--"Roots" failed, "Amistad" failed, there must be a way to depict this important event without such an unfortunate misguided mindset that turns real people into two dimensional cartoon victims.

This really is one fantastic film. Emotionally gripping, Fatalistic as well deeply moving. This film shows the TRUE events on board of any slave ship. I bought this film today by accident at a flea market in Bellmore. I wasn't sure exactly what it would be like. I read the back, saw Djmon Honsu's name and thought that it would be more of a factual documentary. Boy was I wrong. Factual, I believe, but it really shows the hell that it must have been like. Being a black woman I am especially grateful for a piece like this one. Not falsely dramatic like Roots, it was nothing less than an emotional trip. This film is OUR Schindler's List.

An uncredited cast with no dialogue, only narration. Very powerful, realistic portrayal of conditions and mindset aboard a slave ship bound for the Americas. It seems amazing that the director was able to get his actors to actually submit to the conditions necessary to film such a movie.

Told through the perspective of a deceased slave, Passage du Milieu is a haunting look at the horrors of the human slavery industry. This film is even more jarring considering these events are still happening in many parts of the world. The filmmakers do a fine job of brining light to a subject that's unfortunately been neglected by the mainstream media. It's an ambitious mix of documentary and narrative fiction, bu might have been even more effective had the filmmakers chosen one or the other and stuck to that format. The story tends to meander at times, focusing on the sad truths of the business, instead of giving the characters momentum or plot twists.