Near the end of the Civil War, a cynical African American man, Marcus (Keston John), and his adolescent nephew Will (Ashton Sanders) are in league with slave-pursuing bounty hunters. As the film The Retrieval begins, they are sent north alone to find Nate (Tishuan Scott), a quietly enigmatic man with a particularly large price on his head; the lead bounty hunter threatens Marcus and Will's lives if they fail to return with Nate. On the road, however, loyalties are tested and unexpected friendships formed, resulting in a life-changing (and, for the audience, very suspenseful) moral conundrum for the youthful-but-not-naive Will. This is a small film, but a very fine one in almost every way. It is a fresh variation on the Civil War picture not only because it is a rare example of the sub-genre told from an African American perspective, but also because it unfolds on quiet country lanes and in the forest as the war rages nearby. Actual combat only erupts now and then into the central drama, but its haunting specter is always present. The trio of stars are splendid. As the adult men, Scott and John both convey the soul-burdening exhaustion and pain acquired over the course of hard lives within claustrophobic and often brutal racial constriction, yet they are a study in contrast in regard to the way they cope and treat others. If the film itself had a higher profile, I suspect Scott might be part of the Oscar conversation as a best-actor contender. And Sanders delivers a performance free of child-actor artifice, quietly illustrating the formation of his character's worldview as he matures over the course of the dangerous journey.

A-