Love story became political issue
TORONTO — Amma Asante was intrigued when she learned of the romance between an African prince and a British office worker, but seeing photos of the dapper couple cemented her interest in sharing their story.
The British filmmaker received the images of Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams from British actor David Oyelowo (Selma, Queen of Katwe), who pitched a project on the historic duo.
“I just found the images of them in Botswana and walking through the streets of London — Seretse in his trilby and his trench coat, and her in her stylish suits — just incredible,” Asante recalled in an interview from Los Angeles.
“I, of course, wanted to know more.”
In Asante’s new film, A United Kingdom, Oyelowo stars as Seretse opposite Rosamund Pike as Ruth.
Their unlikely coupling leads to romantic sparks while causing fractures in their respective countries.
The film shows the pair meeting at a Missionary Society dance in 1947 London, where Seretse, a black law student, and Ruth, a white office worker, are bonded by their love of jazz — and then of each other.
Their romance becomes complicated by their mixed-race coupling and Seretse’s royal status, as first in line to the throne of Bechuanaland (now known as Botswana).
The couple marry and decide to live in Seretse’s homeland — then a British colony — where the young prince seeks to lead an independence movement. The newlyweds face intense opposition from all corners — their families, Bechuanaland residents, and governments in Britain and neighbouring South Africa, where apartheid loomed.
“You can’t really understand the power of their love and the strength of their courage as well unless you know what they were truly up against,” said Asante, who is of Ghanaian heritage and in a mixed-race marriage to Dane Soren Pedersen.
“It was very, very difficult for them, but they never gave up. They genuinely chose that road less travelled and stuck by it. But the interesting thing for me is how political a relationship can be made.
“For this couple, it was just a pure love, two souls that found each other and fell in love. But to the three countries that were relevant in their story, because of timing in particular, this became so politicized — and what then unfolds is incredible.”
Asante said there was considerable pressure to shoot A United Kingdom in South Africa due to the filmmaking infrastructure already in place there, but she was intent on making the movie in Botswana. She got her wish. “I really wanted the DNA, if you like, running through the veins of the film,” Asante said.
“It was amazing because we got to shoot in many of the places that the real events took place, including the home where Ruth and Seretse lived when they went back to Africa.
“We found it one day and we just realized that we didn’t want to shoot anywhere else, and just carefully put it back together on the inside. The whole shell was still there.”
Working in the intense heat in the southern African nation proved challenging, but Asante said being able to film within a location so central to Seretse and Ruth’s lives was worth the arduous effort.
“We felt privileged to be there, privileged to be able to work with the people of Botswana, and have all of those faces being a real part of our story — it was incredible,” Asante said.
“It’s like no other place in the sense that it’s flat. It’s very dry, and it’s an arid land, but it has its own character and its own personality.
“So it was lovely to be able to include that in the film.”