Amma Asante’s ‘A United Kingdom’ Set As BFI London Film Festival OpenerPosted by Wilson Morales
June 21, 2016
Source: Variety
Director Amma Asante’s racial drama A United Kingdom will open the 60th BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 5, reports Variety.
The film stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike in a love story based on the true tale of Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams.
Written by Guy Hibbert, Oyelowo will play Seretse, heir to the African throne of Botswana, who created a sensation in 1948 by engaging in a whirlwind romance in London with Williams, a white English office worker he married in 1949.
The interracial union was opposed by both their families, as well as the British government, the Tribal elders of Botswana and the apartheid government of South Africa. The couple would not be denied, overcoming huge obstacles to be together. His uncle attempted to depose him, and he ended up being banned from his home country South Africa in 1951 due to its illegal stance on interracial marriage. Their son, Ian Khama, is currently the freely elected president of Botswana.
Asante directed 2014’s period drama Belle that starred Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Pathe International is financing and is one of the production companies behind the project along with Oyelowo.
