A United Kingdom is a true story based on Seretse Khama, a member of the Botswana royal family, who caused an international stir when he married Englishwoman Ruth Williams in the 1940s. Their relationship was not that well known in the U.S., but gained attention due to increasingly hateful dissent in other African countries who wanted to be free of European colonial and imperial rule. Belle‘s Amma Asante is the director of this film and it stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike. A new trailer has been released which you can view above.
Khama and Williams met while he was studying abroad in London. They married in 1948. Because of this, an intense international uproar followed. The couple was exiled from Bechuanaland for 5 years. They were allowed to return in 1956. Afterwards, Khama emerged as a leader of the African independence movement. He later became the country’s prime minister in 1965, and upon independence, became Botswana’s first President, serving until his death in 1980.
Screening in select theaters will begin February 17, 2017.