![‘The Underground Railroad’: Barry Jenkins’ Brings Poetic ‘Instant Light’ To The Ideas Of Black Emancipation [Review]](https://cooncel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/the-underground-railroad-barry-jenkins-brings-poetic-instant-light-to-the-ideas-of-black-emancipation-review_6092c8231d789.jpeg "‘The Underground Railroad’: Barry Jenkins’ Brings Poetic ‘Instant Light’ To The Ideas Of Black Emancipation [Review]")
Andrei Tarkovsky was the name on Barry Jenkins‘ lips as the main influence for his television adaptation of “The Underground Railroad.” Not the first name to think of when considering the enormity of Colson Whitehead’s 2016 novel. The story: a combination of the distressing tribulations of an escapee slave girl with a hefty volume of magical realism, doesn’t immediately describe the Russian auteur. And yet, the luminous visuals lensed by cinematographer James Laxton hark back to “Instant Light,” a small collection of polaroid photos taken by Tarkovsky. The wispy poetic mysticism of those pictures breezes through much of the beautiful golden hour images that appear within ‘Underground Railroad.’ The inspiration is there, yet this show is most certainly a Jenkins work. Filled with moments and themes which have resonated with each of the director’s previous pieces.