20/27
Elwood Curtis’ college dream is shattered on a two-lane highway in Florida. Bearing the brunt of an innocent oversight, he is sentenced to incarceration in the hellish Nickel Academy, a brutal penitentiary lost deep in the Jim Crow South. He meets the second ward, who saw all of Turner. Two black teenagers form an alliance: Turner gives basic survival advice, Elwood warms to his optimistic outlook. Against the background of the nascent Civil Rights Movement, Ellwood and Turner’s existence seems far removed from the brilliant eloquence of the Reverend Martin Luther King. Despite Nickel’s cruelty, Elwood strives to retain his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner.