Another trailer has landed for “Belle” director Amma Asante’s new film, “A United Kingdom.” The interracial romance is inspired by a true story, and a newly released spot for the film shows how some small talk about jazz led to a history-changing marriage.
Based on the book “Color Bar” by Susan Williams, the film centers on the “forbidden love of King Seretse Khama of Botswana (David Oyelowo) and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), a white woman from London, which caused an international uproar when they decided to marry in the late 1940’s just as apartheid was being introduced into South Africa,” “A United Kingdom’s” official synopsis details. “It was a decision that altered the course of African history.”
Asante told Women and Hollywood that she was was drawn to “the opportunity to tell a true story — that might normally be told solely through white and male eyes — through [her] gaze, and to slant the perspective to a certain extent because of that.” She explained, “I thought about my mother, my aunts, my uncles — how they might have felt at that time were a leader from their nation to bring home an outsider to be queen, and I wanted the opportunity to include that possible point of view and see it through their eyes.”
The trailer focuses on the strength of Seretse and Ruth’s relationship, and emphasizes the harsh opposition they face as husband and wife. “Who do you think will accept you? As if it is were your right to be our Queen,” Ruth is told. Seretse is warned, “You will renounce any right to the throne.” Despite all of the backlash and threats, the two remain committed to one another — and to the country Seretse will lead.
Asante said that she wants audiences to think about how “the couple made choices that were unfavorable to many at that time but they stuck to what they believed in and — despite that opposition — their love won out. We’ve all been in positions of feeling unsupported,” the British filmmaker observed. “The question is: How do we find the courage to stick to our guns and follow what we believe when all else is against us?”
“A United Kingdom” made its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and opened the BFI London Film Festival. The film hits U.S. theaters February 17. It’s already screening in the UK.
