The story of King Seretse Khama of Botswana and how his loving but controversial marriage to a British white woman, Ruth Williams, put his kingdom into political and diplomatic turmoil.The story of King Seretse Khama of Botswana and how his loving but controversial marriage to a British white woman, Ruth Williams, put his kingdom into political and diplomatic turmoil.The story of King Seretse Khama of Botswana and how his loving but controversial marriage to a British white woman, Ruth Williams, put his kingdom into political and diplomatic turmoil.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 5 nominations total
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Featured reviews
This is one of those movies that is flying under the radar and deserves to be seen. It is a wonderful story, well scripted, well acted, and has terrific cinematography. The fact that is a true story makes one wonder what the hell we have been learning in school when we have never been taught this type of history. I give this a ten and really it deserves it. It is a shame people have degraded the rating for some reason other than the fact that this is good cinema. It is a very deserving movie and is like the movie Hidden Figures or Queen Katwe, it is important for history. I am a white conservative and think everyone should see the movie.
This is an outstanding film about a story I knew nothing about. However, my review is more a review of IMDb and its voting system.
I note that this film has, at the time of writing twenty-two 1 star reviews. Maybe these are genuine but I suspect they are not. For one thing the film has not had many screenings so have as many as twenty-two different people really hated it that much?
Secondly, 1 star films do not get selected for the Toronto Film Festival or for the opening night film for the London Film Festival. The programmers and selectors of these highly regarded festivals are at the top of their game and each year they are offered several thousand films. None of them are going to risk their hard fought reputations on selecting a bad 1-star film.
My feeling is that these 22 people are members of the KKK who hate black people or else they are people who are jealous of the those involved in the production.
Either way IMDb needs to have an algorithm that can deduce whether these people are genuine, or not. Maybe they are and the press reviews so far, which rave about the film, are wrong, but maybe these people are racist bitter bigots who hate the success of others because they themselves are failures and they have nothing better to do in their small sad lives but set up false IMDb accounts and vent their spleen in the only way they can.
Time as they say will tell.
I note that this film has, at the time of writing twenty-two 1 star reviews. Maybe these are genuine but I suspect they are not. For one thing the film has not had many screenings so have as many as twenty-two different people really hated it that much?
Secondly, 1 star films do not get selected for the Toronto Film Festival or for the opening night film for the London Film Festival. The programmers and selectors of these highly regarded festivals are at the top of their game and each year they are offered several thousand films. None of them are going to risk their hard fought reputations on selecting a bad 1-star film.
My feeling is that these 22 people are members of the KKK who hate black people or else they are people who are jealous of the those involved in the production.
Either way IMDb needs to have an algorithm that can deduce whether these people are genuine, or not. Maybe they are and the press reviews so far, which rave about the film, are wrong, but maybe these people are racist bitter bigots who hate the success of others because they themselves are failures and they have nothing better to do in their small sad lives but set up false IMDb accounts and vent their spleen in the only way they can.
Time as they say will tell.
6.8 does not do justice to a film that tells a story of how love can overcome boundaries. In this case, this is one of the rare African stories that we tend to get to hear about. For a long time, stories to do with Africa have been about disease, poverty and undernourishment. Asante's take on this film does indeed tell the viewer that there is more to Africa than what meets the eye.
I believe that this film should set a precedent for more African stories to be told . This film tells you that there is a lot more than just about Mandela. There is need to learn about other Africans namely Jomo Kenyatta, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, John Chilembwe and many others. These are perhaps some of the few names that I can think of. I commend Asante for taking a bold stand in producing a film of a figure(s) that most people out there may have not heard.
For those of you that may want to get a different side to Africa, I would recommend that you begin by watching "A United Kingdom". In my view, it is one of the more decent films of 2016/17 combined.
I believe that this film should set a precedent for more African stories to be told . This film tells you that there is a lot more than just about Mandela. There is need to learn about other Africans namely Jomo Kenyatta, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, John Chilembwe and many others. These are perhaps some of the few names that I can think of. I commend Asante for taking a bold stand in producing a film of a figure(s) that most people out there may have not heard.
For those of you that may want to get a different side to Africa, I would recommend that you begin by watching "A United Kingdom". In my view, it is one of the more decent films of 2016/17 combined.
A United Kingdom is a true and gripping tale which handles it true historical source material with aplomb. With fantastic performances from Oyelowo and especially Pike, the central characters plight is beautifully illustrated. It's not perfect; some of the writing is a little clunky, but the character chemistry is there, and you leave the movie theatre feeling like a part of the story.
Quite how this movie receives the rating it does is completely beyond me. I can only imagine that half the voters didn't in fact see the movie.
Quite how this movie receives the rating it does is completely beyond me. I can only imagine that half the voters didn't in fact see the movie.
I love it when a story is told that many of us haven't heard of or known much about.
Although possibly oversimplified due to the necessity of keeping the movie within a normal viewing time, nonetheless, it's a very good story about an amazing piece of history.
Well acted, well directed and beautifully filmed, this is a film I'm very happy to have seen. It's an inspirational look at enduring love and intelligence, at people power and a nation's faith in their leader, as well as credibly showing yet again how the British Empire and their bevy of crooked prime ministers deem to destroy nations for greed and profit, and to boot, having the gall to treat anyone but themselves as underdogs.
An excellent film for what it is and I would recommend it.
Although possibly oversimplified due to the necessity of keeping the movie within a normal viewing time, nonetheless, it's a very good story about an amazing piece of history.
Well acted, well directed and beautifully filmed, this is a film I'm very happy to have seen. It's an inspirational look at enduring love and intelligence, at people power and a nation's faith in their leader, as well as credibly showing yet again how the British Empire and their bevy of crooked prime ministers deem to destroy nations for greed and profit, and to boot, having the gall to treat anyone but themselves as underdogs.
An excellent film for what it is and I would recommend it.
Did you know
- TriviaThe house used as Ruth & Seretse's home in the film was the home of the real Ruth & Seretse.
- GoofsAt about 1'17, the civil servant refers to the new Prime Minister as Sir Winston Churchill. He was not knighted until 1953.
- Quotes
Seretse Khama: No man is free who is not master of himself.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Film '72: Episode #45.8 (2016)
- SoundtracksNo Baby, No Nobody But You
Lyrics and Music by Seger Ellis
Performed by Stan Kenton and June Christy
Published by EMI United Partnership Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd
Licensed Courtesy of Capitol Records Inc.
Under Licence from Universal Music Operations Ltd
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Об'єднане королівство
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $14,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,902,185
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $66,510
- Feb 12, 2017
- Gross worldwide
- $14,459,330
- Runtime
- 1h 51m(111 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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