Amma Asante (Belle) brilliantly directs this biopic of Seretse Khama (Oyelowo), the former African royal who courted controversy with his interracial marriage to Englishwoman Ruth Williams (Pike) and later led his nation to independence from the British Empire as the first president of Botswana. Having already portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in 2014’s Selma, Oyelowo provides another stirring depiction of a heroic figure who used nonviolence to change the world’s attitude toward racial integration. Pike is likewise magnetic as a woman whose openheartedness won over a culture initially inclined to shun her.
A United Kingdom
Directed by Amma Asante