The first trailer for Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom is here, and it looks to be a heart-wrenching and beautiful tribute to the love between Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams.
A United Kingdom tells the story of Khama, the first president of Botswana, and Ruth Williams, the inaugural First Lady with David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike playing the couple. The two fell in love in England in 1947, and their marriage the next year caused outrage in the apartheid government of South Africa and the Bamangwato people. In one scene, Williams is told, “If you choose to marry the leader of an African nation you will be responsible for the downfall of the British Empire in Africa. Have you no shame?” and in another, Khama must tearfully defend his marriage to Bechuanaland.
Oyelowo has said before that he had never seen an African love story “of this cinematic scope,” calling it “a celebration of two people I deem so brave for doing what in my life, I’ve been able to take for granted.” From the footage we have so far, it looks like the film be just as, if not more, beautiful and compelling as Asante’s 2013 period drama Belle.
A United Kingdom comes to theaters November 25th.
(via Little White Lies)
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