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

Alone by the fire, Solomon burns a flower-shaped pattern into his forearm, marking the memory of the stained-glass gift from his daughter.

Scene 159 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:43 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 159

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.
Scenes 66–123
He enters plantation life under Ford, passes through Tibeats’s violence and the near-lynching, and is transferred to Epps.
Scene 124
Solomon is transferred to Epps’s plantation and placed among Patsey and the enslaved workers, opening the harsher final plantation phase.
Just before
Scene 156
Solomon works quickly cutting cane in Turner’s three-stage field operation as the judge watches.
Scene 157
In the crowded shack, frightened Anna seeks physical comfort from Solomon; the encounter offers each a brief sense of human closeness before they turn away in shame.
Scene 158
As a wagon carries enslaved women away, Solomon moves toward Anna but cannot stop her departure; she looks back at him as the wagon disappears.
Scene 159
This scene

159EXT. TURNER PLANTATION - EVENING

Segregated slightly from other salves, Solomon sits before a small fire. A thought comes to Solomon. Crossing to some fencing, he tears loose a bit of wire. With the wire Solomon fashions a loop. Holding the wire to the flame of the fire, Solomon heats it until it glows, takes a moment...THEN PRESSES THE LOOP TO THE FLESH OF HIS LEFT INNER-FOREARM. He winces greatly, and his eyes well not merely from the pain of the burns, but from other complexities as well. Solomon repeats the process again and again, renting his flesh in near self- mutilation - as though doing penance - and circling the burns until the marks resemble the STAIN GLASS FLOWER ELIZABETH HAD MADE FOR HIM. Here, at nearly his lowest point, Solomon literally burns the memory of his family onto himself.