British filmmaker Steve McQueen tells the quintessential American story in the film 12 Years a Slave.

The movie, based on Solomon Northup's memoir written in 1853, has scorched the Toronto International Film Festival 2013 on Friday. It has been considered as the most moving drama in the festival.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the protagonist, a free Afro-American who was sold in1841. The protagonist, Soloman Northup, was forced to be a slave on a plantation in Louisiana. The co-stars of the movie include Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano and Alfre Woodard.

Most of the critics predicted that the film would be a sure winner of the Best Picture Oscar in 2014. The movie impressed the class and the mass alike in the festival. Brad Pitt, who was present during the screening of the film on Friday, said that he was so proud of this film that he would not mind if he did the film again.

Pitt also said that, for some strange reasons, there were not enough American films on this subject. It took a British filmmaker to make such stunning film on a typically American subject, he said. Pitt is also a producer of the film which had its Toronto premiere at TIFF on Friday.

McQueen was talking to Reuters when he informed that his ancestors had been slaves. McQueen has already impressed critics with his first two movies, Hunger and Shame. Chiwetel Ejiofor who plays the protagonist in the film is also a British citizen with a Nigerian background. His ancestors, too, have a history of slavery.

Michael Fassbender plays a psychotic character of the owner of a cotton plantation. He watched the movie only in August for the first time at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. He was talking to Reuters at the Shangri-La Hotel. He said that he felt that 12 Years a Slave was a masterpiece. He was extremely proud to be a part of it, he said.

Critics expect a huge number of Oscar nominations for 12 Years a Slave.

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