One way a filmmaker can choose to quickly and easily let the audience know whose story is to be centered is through the use of subtitles, particularly when none of the characters in the story come from a land where English is the native language. Hence director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s decision to have the Dahomey and Oyo characters speak in African-accented English while the European slavers deliver their dialogue in subtitled Portuguese.
Indeed, at one point Dahomey King Ghezo (John Boyega)—despite being able to speak Portuguese—demands that the slaver with whom he is speaking speak “his” language. (Which, again, to our ears is English, but is “actually” Fon, the Dahomey language; you get the idea.) The point, simply, is this: language is power, and the person who gets to choose...