Clemency
Directed by Chinonye Chukwu

ALFRE WOODARD is a commanding figure as a weary prison warden overseeing her 12th execution in this quietly powerful film.

Its writer and director Chinonye Chukwu is the first black woman film-maker to win the most coveted prize at the Sundance Film Festival and hers is an unsentimental feature.

Uniquely, Clemency explores the emotional and psychological toll on all those involved, from the warden to the chaplain to the prison staff taking part in the actual execution.

The film was inspired by the case of Troy Davis in the US, who was executed by lethal injection in 2011 after protesting his innocence to the very end and despite the extensive protests from hundreds of thousands of people calling for clemency.

Events are seen through the eyes of warden Bernadine Williams (Woodard) who, under close scrutiny after a botched execution, is determined that the next one of Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), who fervently denies killing a police officer, will go without a hitch.

As she treats him with utter professionalism and respect, she finds herself battling against getting too close.

To cope with the pressures of the job, the uber-professional Williams ends up drinking at the local bar every night, thus endangering her marriage as she becomes ever more distant from her husband (Wendell Pierce).

Bernadine is all about keeping her emotions in check while Woods veers from hope to despair and back again. You can’t help being deeply moved by both, especially in the final sequence.

The film doesn’t pull its punches, particularly in the execution scenes. But unlike other death-row dramas this is about the emotional and moral dilemmas faced by everyone involved rather than the rights and wrongs of capital punishment.

Available at bohemiamedia.co.uk/clemency and on Curzon Home Cinema.