

In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.
Cinematography
Rachel Morrison's mud-soaked frames made Oscar history.
Acting
Mary J. Blige's eyes do what pages of dialogue cannot.
Direction
Dee Rees wields multiple narrators like weapons.

Director
Dee Rees
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rachel Morrison became the first woman nominated for Best Cinematography for this film — and promptly wasn't hired for another major feature for three years.
Dee Rees fought to keep Ronsel's fate ambiguous in the novel explicit on screen, arguing that Black audiences deserved to see him survive rather than wonder.