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

Solomon tries to use crushed berries as ink with the feather and stolen paper, but the liquid runs too freely.

Scene 165 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:45 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 165

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 162
The overseer orders Solomon to drive the workers; Solomon barely lashes them at first, but the overseer whips him until he does the job more forcefully.
Scene 163
While eating after work, Solomon notices the juice from berries on his plate.
Scene 164
Solomon catches a duck by the riverbank and removes one of its feathers.
Scene 165
This scene

165EXT. TURNER PLANTATION - NIGHT

Secreted away out near the edge of the bayou and sitting by a small fire, Solomon takes the slip of paper from his fiddle. It is yellowed, showing age, but still usable. Dipping the duck's feather - a quill - into the crushed berries, Solomon attempts to write a bit on the paper. The berry juice, too free-flowing, is unusable as ink.

Solomon returns the paper to the fiddle. He has some scraps of food with him, which he snacks on.