Directed by Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent) and starring Octavia Spencer (The Help; Zootopia; Insurgent; Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters; Snowpiercer), Janelle Monáe (Moonlight; Rio 2), Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Person of Interest (tv series); The Karate Kid), Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves; Tin Cup, JFK; Robin hood: Prince of Thieves; Waterworld; Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit; The Bodyguard), Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory (TV Series)) and Kirsten Dunst (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Jumanji; Wimbledon; Elizabethtown; Spider-Man; Fargo (TV Series)).

Drama, 127 mins, 6+

Inspired by true events, this is a remarkable film. High in emotion throughout, it is set in a time when there is still racial segregation in the US. While not at all nostalgic, the setting is chillingly accurate, from the initial scene right through to the closing credits.

Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) and Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) all have brilliant mathematical minds and work at NASA before the advent of computers. In the late 1950s and early 1960s thre three African-American women work in the "Colored computer" department, with one of the issues being that Katherine, the acting supervisor, will not be promoted to the full-time position due to her race, with Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst) blocking the way.

They accept the times in which they live and, while Martin Luther King is coming to prominence with the civil rights movement, they put their heads down and get on with their work - most of which initially consists of manually checking other staff's computations.

Dorothy Vaughan gets the opportunity to work in the control room across the desk from Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons) and reports to Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) who is leading the space programme. While they lose the race to have the first man in space, they work together as a unit to solve practical issues using mathematical computations, with the floor-to-ceiling blackboards in everyday use.

This little known almost unbelievable story recounts how NASA discovered the previously untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians. It features Glen Powell as a charismatic John Glenn who they are about to launch into orbit around the earth.

The film has not only a great setting but also a wonderful cast and tremendous character development. The sets are glorious for their drabness, and the installation of the first IBM mainframe should interest a few computer nerds, and not just those who remember programming in Fortran.

With similarities to Castles in the Sky (Britain, 2014, about the discovery of RADAR just before the Battle of Britain), A Beautiful Mind (USA, 2001, about mathematician John Nash) and also The Man Who Knew Infinity (Britian / USA, 2015, about Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan) - in which the protagonists faced insurmountable odds despite their brilliant minds - Hidden Figures is definitely not to be missed.