1 of 7 | Chiwetel Ejiofor, center right, stars as Solomon Northrup in '12 Years a Slave.' (Fox Searchlight)
Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Steve McQueen's new film is a historical story based on the life of a real man. It has been called a "masterpiece" and "the best film of 2013," but to McQueen, the most important thing about 12 Years a Slave is that its story isn't just about the past.
"This is the perverse thing about the world -- that right now there are people held in slavery," McQueen said during a discussion at LA's Museum of Tolerance on Wednesday night. "There's more slavery now than there was then."
"There is evidence of slavery everywhere," he said.
According to the Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization that combats human trafficking, some 21 million people worldwide are held in modern forms of slavery -- sexual slavery and forced labor are the most common -- compared to the 11 million slaves transported from Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries.
McQueen said he hopes the film, based on the true story of freeman Solomon Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who was tricked in New York and sold as a slave into the pre-Civil War South, would raise awareness that slavery isn't just a part of history.
"This will hopefully cause a stir," he said. "Because there was so much amnesia about slavery. It's incredible."
The 44-year-old British director said the United States is still dealing with the fallout of its history with slavery in its struggles with poverty, educational inequality, drug abuse and overflowing prisons.
"The evidence of things unseen," McQueen said. "It hasn't been dealt with. You have to ask yourself: 'Do black people like drugs more than other people? Do they like crime more than other people?' No."
"The reason for making the film is to put things right, put things straight," he said.
12 Years a Slave expands nationwide this weekend.
[YahooMovies]
