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

Solomon meets the fugitive Celeste in the swamp, shares his food, and hears her plan to live freely beyond the reach of patrollers and dogs.

Scene 170 of 211 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Act two

Celeste
Solomon

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:47 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 170

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 167
Yarney gives Solomon seventeen dollars collected by the delighted party guests, marveling that the money makes him wealthy by plantation standards.
Scene 168
Two desperate men attack Solomon on the dark road for his money and fiddle; he fights back with a pine knot and drives them off.
Scene 169
Back at the sugar house, Solomon uses the whip more vigorously on the workers, directing his anger at them.
Scene 170
This scene

170EXT. TURNER PLANTATION - NIGHT

Alone out on the edge of the Bayou, Solomon is playing a low air on his violin WHILE SNACKING ON SCRAPS OF BACON. As he plays, something appears in the distance. From the edge of the bayou, coming forth like an apparition arisen from the earth, is CELESTE. She is a young woman of about 19 years of age and far whiter than most blacks. "IT REQUIRED CLOSE INSPECTION TO DISTINGUISH IN HER FEATURE THE SLIGHTEST TRACE OF AFRICAN BLOOD." Beyond that, she is pale and haggard, but still lovely.

Celeste moves to Solomon without fear or hesitation. As Solomon, startled, takes her in, Celeste says quite plainly:

CELESTE

I am hungry. Give me food.

SOLOMON

Who are you?

CELESTE

I'm hungry.

SOLOMON

All I have are some scraps of

bacon.

Solomon gives her some of his food. Celeste, famished, devours it.

SOLOMON (CONT'D)

What is your name?

CELESTE

My name is Celeste.

SOLOMON

What are your circumstances?

CELESTE

I belong ta Massa Carey, and 'ave

been two days among da palmettoes.

Celeste is sick and cain't work,

and would rather die in the swamp

than be whipped to death by the

overseer. So I took myself away.

Massa's dogs won't follow me. The

patrollers 'ave tried to set dem

on me. But dey a secret between

dem and Celeste, and dey won't

mind the devilish orders of the

overseer.

Celeste lifts her head from the food she gnaws on.

CELESTE (CONT'D)