Oprah Winfrey collaborated with director Jonathan Demme (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) for this African American ghost story, set in 1870s Ohio. Demme adapted it from Toni Morrison's Pulitzer-winning book. Former slave Sethe (Winfrey) lives with her daughter Denver (Kimberly Elise) in a house haunted by the malignant spirit of Sethe's long-dead infant. Sethe is also haunted by memories of her life of slavery at Sweet Home, the Kentucky plantation where she was raised. Enter Paul D. (Danny Glover), a fellow slave from Sweet Home, who stays at the house to start a new life with Sethe and Denver. Unfortunately their plans for happiness are foiled with the unexpected arrival of Beloved (Thandie Newton), a mysterious woman that may be the physical manifestation of Sethe's dead child. Horrifying secrets are revealed leading to a shattering climax.

Exquisite cinematography by Tak Fujimoto gives the film its stark beauty, and the performances are all splendid, particularly Winfrey's, and Newton's as the strange, hissing girl-child. Evocative recreations of the time, and disturbing flashbacks to the terrors of Sweet Home are interwoven to create a harrowing, vivid portrait of a life of freedom still haunted by ghosts of America's shameful past.