A United Kingdom is a heartfelt love story transcending race and borders

The film A United Kingdom explores the interracial relationship of African political leader Seretse Khama and British woman Ruth Williams, who overcame adversity to be together.

Director Amma Asante with David Oyelowo as Seretse Khama on the set of A United Kingdom. Stanislav Honzik / Twentieth Century Fox.
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The story of African political leader Seretse Khama, Amma Asante's film A United Kingdom has been a long time coming.

Actor-producer David Oyelowo first read Susan Williams's biography Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and his Nation in 2010.

“The truth of the matter is, I wanted to play Seretse Khama six years ago,” he says. “I had nowhere near the notoriety or profile that could corral the millions of dollars you need to make a film.”

Fortunately, Oyelowo's career grew with his casting as Dr Martin Luther King in Selma. Co-star Rosamund Pike, cast as Khama's British wife Ruth Williams, scored an Oscar nomination with Gone Girl. And Asante, Oyelowo's chosen director, gained critical plaudits for her 2013 film Belle. Even then, convincing financiers to back an interracial love story was a struggle.

“I’ve learnt that tenacity and determination are the way to get these films made,” says Oyelowo.

Still, A United Kingdom boasts a remarkable story at its heart. It begins in 1947, when Ruth, an ordinary London clerk, meets Seretse while he is in England studying law. What she doesn't initially realise is that he's of noble blood, soon to be ruler of Bechuanaland – or Botswana, as it would become when it finally gained independence from Britain in 1966. But when they marry, it causes a storm both among Seretse's people and within the British government.

“It was not lost on me how audacious Seretse was in wanting to take a white queen back to Africa and back to the black women of his nation,” says Asante. “But there was anger and frustration [that I felt] as well, that one country could separate a man from another country.”

With the British desperate to curry favour with neighbouring apartheid-driven South Africa, officials managed to keep Seretse and Ruth apart – he in Britain, she in Bechuanaland – for years.

Pike was desperate to play her character. “I’ve never come across a role like Ruth,” she says. “I would’ve moved everything around to do this film. For some reason, she spoke to me very deeply and I admired her hugely. I just loved her certainty. It sounds terribly old-fashioned, but I believe Ruth’s tremendous strength is through her unwavering support of Seretse. I think her acts of love were the things that were heroic.”