Brad Pitt Critiques Americans and Defends Brutality in 12 Years a Slave.

Brad Pitt attended the screening of his latest film, “12 Years a Slave,” at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival on Friday. The screening was followed by a press conference, in which the controversial critical hit was discussed.

Pitt, who produced the film through his own production company Plan B, revealed that the idea behind the movie stemmed from his desire to work with English director Steve McQueen. He stated that McQueen has mentioned the topic of slavery while they both sat to discuss a joint project, and that that caught Pitt's attention immediately.

The film tells the story of the twelve years of suffering of an African fiddler who gets kidnapped from New York, and eventually becomes sold as a slave.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, who leads as Simon Northup, added that he was personally touched by the film, specially after visiting Nigeria before the shooting started, a place where many Africans were kidnapped and sent to the state of Louisiana for slavery.

After one of the audience questions revolved around the graphic depiction of violence in the film, the cast and crew were on the defensive, stating that Americans mostly ignore the truth about certain issues in order not to feel hurt, even if the reality of the situation was much more brutal. The filmmakers saw this as naiveté, and assured the audience that art has to reflect reality however cruel or violent it was.

Michael Fassbender co-stars along Brad Pitt and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and the film is expected to hit theaters by the end of October.