The star - studded biopic centres on the tragic and turbulent time in the life Solomon Northup, the well - educated, black New York - born husband and father who was brutally
beaten in a back alley and sold into slavery during the 1850s.
Perhaps more than any of the Coens other films, Inside Llewyn Davis is scrupulously realistic — right up until its final sequence,
in which there is an unexpected temporal shift
back to the beginning of the film, with Llewyn again singing «Hang Me, Oh Hang Me» at the club before being
beaten up
in the
alley behind it.