What about a European man being kidnapped and sold into slavery in Africa though? This does not accord at all with our present-day notions about slavery and so is most unlikely to be made into an Oscar-winning film. How many readers even know that Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, spent five years as a slave in Africa? A film about Cervantes’ life called Five Years a Slave would just be confusing! How could one of the most famous European authors of all time have been a slave in Africa? It sounds ridiculous.
