12 Years a Slave · written by John Ridley and Steve McQueen · 2013

Unable to bear Eliza’s constant crying, Solomon strikes her; she asks whether he still grieves his own children and calls him by his true name, piercing his attempt to suppress his pain.

Scene 115 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Solomon
Eliza

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:10 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 115

After being kidnapped from New York and sold into slavery, Solomon Northup uses his skills and carefully placed trust to survive and seek a way back to his family.

Scenes 1–29
Solomon lives freely in Saratoga as a husband, father, worker, and musician.
Scenes 30–65
Kidnapped and held under the imposed name Platt, Solomon must preserve his life and identity.
Scene 86
Ford takes Solomon, Harry, and Eliza from Freeman; Eliza is dragged away from Emily, committing Solomon to plantation life and its family separations.
Scene 87
Ford brings Solomon and the other captives into plantation life; Solomon must survive within a system that denies his identity.
Just before
Scene 112
Solomon finds Eliza at the Tanner plantation, where she still mourns her children; when she clings to him, Tibeats beats them both until overseer Chapin intervenes.
Scene 113
At supper, Lawson and Bristol warn Solomon that Tibeats is volatile and that Ford can no longer protect him.
Scene 114
While Solomon builds the weaving house, Tibeats disputes the boards and orders him to fetch nails before daybreak.
Scene 115
This scene

115EXT. TANNER PLANATION/SLAVE SHACK - EVENING

The slaves eat. All tired from a days work they conduct themselves in silence. All except for Eliza who as always weeps. The sound of her sobbing edging him up, Solomon finally snaps:

SOLOMON

Eliza. Eliza, stop!

He goes to her, grabs her.

SOLOMON (CONT'D)

Stop your wailing. Your sorrow

will be the end of you.

She does not stop. As if to force the misery from her, Solomon strikes Eliza twice.

SOLOMON (CONT'D)

Stop it! Stop!

Eliza does stop crying. But only just long enough to enquire:

ELIZA

Have you stopped crying for your

children? You make no outward

sounds, but inside you; do you

still weep and wail? Before you

drift at night, do you not wonder

where they are and if they

prosper...Solomon? If you do not,

then you assuredly have been

reduced to the nigger they are

desirous of...Solomon.

This truth - AND THE USE OF HIS TRUE NAME BY PATSEY - strikes Solomon very directly. They may mourn differently, but he has not let go of his children.