Synopsis
A United Kingdom (2016) is Amma Asante's historical drama, ready to watch online on iFILM. It draws on what actually happened in 1948, when the heir to the throne of Bechuanaland fell for a London clerk and set two governments against him.
Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) is finishing his studies in postwar London when he meets Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), an ordinary typist. A marriage between a Black African chief and a white Englishwoman lands on every raw nerve of the era. Her family recoils, the tribal elders back home object, and British officials panic about offending neighbouring South Africa, which is busy installing apartheid. Seretse is handed an impossible choice: keep his crown or keep his wife.
Oyelowo and Pike play it quietly, almost like reportage, resisting any swell of melodrama. What makes the film worth your time is how clearly it lays bare the cold colonial bookkeeping that nearly tore two people apart for the sake of empire. Stream A United Kingdom (2016) online on iFILM.
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