A United Kingdom

I love it when a story is told that many of us haven't heard of or known much about.

Although possibly oversimplified due to the necessity of keeping the movie within a normal viewing time, nonetheless, it's a very good story about an amazing piece of history.

Well acted, well directed and beautifully filmed, this is a film I'm very happy to have seen. It's an inspirational look at enduring love and intelligence, at people power and a nation's faith in their leader, as well as credibly showing yet again how the British Empire and their bevy of crooked prime ministers deem to destroy nations for greed and profit, and to boot, having the gall to treat anyone but themselves as underdogs.

An excellent film for what it is and I would recommend it.

The English film A United Kingdom (2016) was directed by Amma Asante. It's an interesting love story, based on real events. David Oyelowo plays Prince Seretse Khama, a young African man studying law in London. Rosamund Pike plays Ruth Williams, an intelligent, fun-loving civil servant. They fall in love, and we know that their marriage will be a difficult one, because of prejudice both in England and in Africa.

What we don't know is that their marriage has implications far beyond each of them. In 1947, South Africa was gearing up for its apartheid program. Bechuanaland was a British protectorate, and Seretse Khama was its rightful prince. However, South Africa borders Bechuanaland, and the South African government refused to tolerate a mixed race couple in a neighboring protectorate.

That meant that not only did Seretse and Ruth face prejudice from the people around them, but they were pawns in an international standoff in which Great Britain was willing to sacrifice them to appease South Africa. What happened next became the plot of the movie.

David Oyelowo is a superb actor. So is Rosamund Pike. Ms. Pike has 42 movie credits, but I believe the only other film in which I saw her was Pride and Prejudice (2005), in which she portrayed Jane Bennet. I reviewed that movie for IMDb, and wrote that her performance was "luminous."

Director Asante is skillful, and the acting and cinematography are wonderful. We saw the movie at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. It won't work quite as well on the small screen, because the film has some breathtaking scenes of the African desert.

For some reason A United Kingdom has a dismal IMDb rating of 6.7. I don't understand this--it's much better than that. Find it and judge for yourself.

This is one of those movies that is flying under the radar and deserves to be seen. It is a wonderful story, well scripted, well acted, and has terrific cinematography. The fact that is a true story makes one wonder what the hell we have been learning in school when we have never been taught this type of history. I give this a ten and really it deserves it. It is a shame people have degraded the rating for some reason other than the fact that this is good cinema. It is a very deserving movie and is like the movie Hidden Figures or Queen Katwe, it is important for history. I am a white conservative and think everyone should see the movie.

"A United Kingdom" is based on the true-life relationship between Sir Seretse Khama, an African chieftain from what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and a white British woman, Ruth Williams. The film implies that he was the King of Bechuanaland, but in fact no single individual ever held this position; Khama was the ruler of the Bangwatho, one of a number of tribes making up the Tswana nation, the largest ethnic group in the country. In Botswana, as Bechuanaland is now known, Khama and Ruth are today revered figures, as he was the leader of the country's independence movement and its first President when independence was achieved in 1966; unlike most other former colonies in Africa Botswana has remained a democracy ever since, and their son is the current President.

Khama's marriage to Ruth Williams (they met while he was studying in London in 1948) was highly controversial at the time. Many of Khama's own people, led by his uncle, refused to accept Ruth as their Queen. The South African government, which was just starting to introduce its policy of apartheid, objected furiously to the idea of a high-profile black leader in a neighbouring country marrying a white woman. Clement Attlee's Labour government, anxious to placate the South Africans who were threatening to leave the Commonwealth, intervened, exiling Khama from Bechuanaland and forbidding him to return. Winston Churchill, at the time leader of the Opposition, initially made sympathetic noises, but after the Conservatives were returned to power in 1951 he took an even harder line than Attlee. The situation was complicated by the discovery of diamonds in the territory; the British government, using the rift between Khama and his uncle as a pretext, threatened to revoke Bechuanaland's status as a Protectorate and declare it a Crown Colony. (The real reason was that in a Protectorate mineral rights belonged to the local people, whereas in a colony they belonged to the colonial power). One of Khama's few British allies was the Labour MP Tony Benn.

The action switches between an austere, drab post-war Britain and a bright sunlit Africa. The recreation of historical detail is well done and both the leading actors, David Oyelowo as Khama and Rosamund Pike as Ruth, are excellent. The film is an interesting look at a historical romance which made the headlines at the time but which today is largely forgotten, at least in Britain. 7/10

Some goofs. We hear a radio broadcast on the eve of Indian independence in 1947 telling us that Indians would go to bed "subjects of the Queen". Britain still had a King, George VI, in 1947. We are told that Queen Victoria made Bechuanaland a Protectorate to protect its people from "racist South Africa", but the Protectorate was created in 1885, twenty-five years before South Africa came into existence as a single nation. (In 1885 it was still a patchwork of British colonies and Boer republics). Prime Minister Attlee claims that the Presidents of South Africa, South-West Africa and the two Rhodesias were all opposed to Khama's marriage to Ruth. During Attlee's term of office (1945-51) none of these territories had a President.

At first I thought this movie would ruin this story. It's a painful, yet hopeful and loving chapter of African history. This is NOT a love story. If people should come to watch this movie hoping for a "love conquers all" plot... They should be very disappointed. And I'm fairly glad for that. I congratulate the director, Amma Asante, for rendering this story into the big screen with delicacy and respect to all involved. I thank her for realizing all this story was NOT, and putting it out for the public from the first frame. I also love her for showing almost everything this story was about, without going into great detail.

This movie is based on the true relationship between the King of (now) Botswana, Sir Seretse Khama, and a white British woman, Ruth Williams. Today we might know Ruth and Khama as leaders in the fight for the country's independence (since it was, when they married, a British protectorate), but their struggle started way sooner. Their story became their country's story. A fight for their right to choose.

It's not about their love. It's about his choice, not to marry within his tribe's customs, and her choice, to up and leave her home, building herself a new life from scratch. It's about a country's choice to their leader - and how much the world hates him, her and the country for the nerve to demand their voices be heard with such fire.

Amma Asante thrives on sewing up Seretse and Ruth deep within the political setting, in a beautiful dance, until we cannot see the lines between them. She also shows how much resistance change can face - and overcome. Their marriage becomes a set of lens for the viewer to analyze strength and frailty confined in this tiny world full of hope. And it gets you going.

Rosamund Pike and Daniel Oyelowo are simply superb. His performance here is stronger than Selma's, which is saying something. And though Pike had less screen time than Oyelowo, her presence is felt throughout every scene. It doesn't fail. Pike gives a poignant performance of a true turnaround in life, and she gets us engaged with her every move. She doesn't have to show her face; every spin this movie gives gets the viewer thinking about Ruth's reaction, thanks to her powerful deliverance.

With that power couple, I thought the supporting cast would be weak and acceptable... I was surprised. Again. Tom Felton, Jack Davenport, Laura Carmichael (why, hello, Lady Edith!), Terry Pheto, Vusi Kunene, Jessica Oyelowo and Abena Ayivor, to name a (very) few, were splendid in their roles and really brought the tension between marriage and politics alive.

Cinematography is delightful, which goes really well with the dazzling music score. The somber tones of post-war London are contrast to the joyful sounds and colors of the southern borders of Africa; yet you hear pain in their laughter as well as you see smiles in British tears. Everything is designed to really bring the viewer there and then.

It's an interesting and delicate take in a true story, that happened not so long ago. It's a solid 7, because of historical inconsistencies throughout the film (the lasting of the protectorate, Indian's ruler at the time of independence, and so on), but it's definitely worth at least a screening.