"A black sharecropper, escaping the poverty of the South, arrives in Chicago in 1917-during the boom years of the First World War-and easily gets a job in the stockyards. There, with the encouragement of a white co-worker, he becomes involved in the labor movement. Many of his fellow blacks refuse to do so, fearing dismissal. But in the immediate postwar period unemployment soars and tension between the black and mostly immigrant white workers is exacerbated in the meat-packing houses, culminating in the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. Based on a true story, Bill Duke's film, which won an international critics' prize at Cannes, shows how a black man's search for the American Dream turns into a harrowing nightmare. Duke has managed to avoid the traps of didactic cinema, opting instead for straightforward realism, with a simple man as his central character, an anti-hero of the killing floor. The atmosphere is almost that of a documentary but one turned into a warm and passionate film. And the feeling of authenticity is heightened by several fine performances." Ninos Feneck Mikelides, London Film Festival