A UNITED KINGDOM
Director Amma Asante
Cert 12A 111 Minutes
‘No man is free unless he is master of himself.’ That is the strapline for this excellent film.
It tells a story of a fight for equality, dignity and freedom in the face of racism and colonialism. Based on true events beginning in the London of 1947, Seretse Khama is a young student from the royal family of Bechuanaland (today’s Botswana) sent to England to be educated in preparation for kingship. We first meet him in the boxing ring, where he fights hard against a white opponent but is floored by foul play. This opening vignette alerts us to the coming plot.
In London, Seretse meets Ruth Williams at a church dance. They fall hopelessly in love, only to find that not only Ruth’s family and the local yobs, but also, with the rise of apartheid in South Africa, the British Government and Seretse’s own people are dead set against the match.
Shameful politics
It is an honest film that portrays prejudice as not just a white man’s problem. It exposes the shameful machinations of diplomacy and the British Government (both Labour and Conservative), with cameo portrayals of a young Tony Benn MP and Fenner Brockway as eager campaigners for human rights.
There is much to warm the Christian’s heart. The courtship between Ruth and Seretse is filled with fun, but is very chaste. Set against the panorama of a changing world stage, the newly-weds grow through events, learning lessons and wiser tactics from initial miscalculations. It shows the way the hearts of the African people are won by Ruth being willing to be one with them through shared struggles, from childbirth to carrying water to facing hostility from expats – the true path to leadership. You cannot but admire the couple’s willingness to suffer considerable hardship for the things they believed in – thus striking a blow against apartheid which even Nelson Mandela acknowledged, pre-dating his own struggle by a decade.
‘No man is free unless he is master of himself.’ Strangely, some would say that is just what the Brexit vote was about! But whatever you think about that, with entrancing performances from Rosamund Pike as Ruth and David Oyelowo as Seretse, this is a worthwhile film about the beauty and power of human love and endurance rooted in God’s image.
