"With visual austerity and not an ounce of sentimentality, Chukwu transforms a character study into an indictment of institutionalized murder." - New York Times

"A mature, star driven vehicle elevated by a brilliant performance that deserves all the awards it can get." - IndieWire

"A searing film." - Film Inquiry

WINNER: Sundance Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic

Warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) is a professional. She arrives at work every day to watch over death-row prisoners until they face execution or receive a rare, last-minute clemency. She takes her job seriously, doing her best to offer dignity to the men left isolated in her prison to contemplate what they did - or didn't do. Even when a lethal injection procedure goes wrong and throws the inmate's family into grief-stricken chaos, Bernadine never loses her cool. But when she goes home at night, she feels it.

Her husband Jonathan (Wendell Pierce) is a schoolteacher still deeply in love with a wife who is growing harder and more distant. Anthony Woods is the next prisoner in line, and a complex man to reach. As his lawyer fights to prove Woods' innocence before time runs out, Bernadiine struggles to maintain the neutral calm that defines her job but threatens to destroy her marriage.