The cameras have begun rolling on “A United Kingdom,” BAFTA-winning director Amma Asante’s follow-up to “Belle.”
Starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike and set in British-colonized Africa, the interracial romance is based on the life of real-life personage Seretse Khama, a member of the local royal family and eventually the first president of Botswana. His marriage in 1948 to Ruth Williams, a white, middle-class Englishwoman, caused international outrage, including opposition from South Africa, where interracial marriage was banned, and Great Britain, which exiled him from his homeland in 1951, for his choice in a spouse.
Shooting began on October 10 in Bostwana.
Asante won the BAFTAs’ award for a best debut film by a British filmmaker in 2005 for her first feature, “A Way of Life.”
[via Variety]
