David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike appear the perfectly happy couple in this first-look shot from A United Kingdom.
But the drama, a passion project for Oyelowo and directed by British director Amma Asante (Belle), will unveil the scandalous side to this real-life union.
The film — among the prestige titles making its market bow in Berlin next month, with Pathe International financing and selling — tells the “epic love story” of Seretse Khama (Oyelowo), a member of the royal family in Bechuanaland, a former English colony in Africa that would become Botswana, who shocked the world when he married white British bank clerk Ruth Williams (Pike) in 1948, at a time when interracial marriage was illegal.
Written by Guy Hibbert from Susan Williams’ book Colour Bar, A United Kingdom is produced by Oyelowo, alongside Rick McCallum (who produced the Star Wars prequels), Pathe’s Cameron McCracken, Brunson Green, Justin Moore-Lewy and Charlie Mason.
Pathe will distribute the film in the U.K. and France.
