{"id":50163,"date":"2016-11-24T02:56:34","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T02:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=50163"},"modified":"2016-11-24T23:16:55","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T23:16:55","slug":"amma-asantes-a-united-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=50163","title":{"rendered":"Amma Asante\u2019s A United Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gal-dem.com\/amma-asantes-united-kingdom\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Amma Asante\u2019s <\/strong><\/em><strong>A United Kingdom<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gal-dem.com\" target=\"_blank\">gal-dem<\/a><br \/>\n2016-11-18<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grace Barber-Plentie<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gal-dem.com\/amma-asantes-united-kingdom\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.gal-dem.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/a-united-kingdom-large_transrWYeUU_H0zBKyvljOo6zlpPHkRvugymKLtqq96r_VP8.jpg?w=720\" width=\"550\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small>Image via Telegraph<\/small><\/p>\n<p>The characters and scenarios in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Amma_Asante\" target=\"_blank\">Amma Asante\u2019s<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/A_United_Kingdom\" target=\"_blank\"><em>A United Kingdom<\/em><\/a> are like ghosts \u2013 they\u2019re long gone, long dead, and yet there is still a resonance and urgency to them that keeps pushing through to our subconscious, never letting us quite forget. Regardless of the merits of her films themselves, Asante is a clever filmmaker, a filmmaker with a plan. At the BFI\u2019s recent Black Star symposium, she told the audience that she deliberately makes period films about old issues in order to show how they reflect on our own contemporary problems with race, gender, love and money. Gone is the period dress of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Belle_(2013_film)\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Belle<\/em><\/a>, but there are still hoards of mixed race girls out there trying to find their place in society. And while in 2016 one would hope that an interracial couple could walk down the street holding hands without a second glance, Asante\u2019s true story of the heir to the throne of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bechuanaland_Protectorate\" target=\"_blank\">Bechuanaland<\/a>\u00a0(now <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Botswana\" target=\"_blank\">Botswana<\/a>) and his white wife still makes us think about those of us that must fight for what we want and who we love.<\/p>\n<p>The love worth fighting for, in the case of <em>A United Kingdom<\/em>, is that of white shopkeeper\u2019s daughter <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ruth_Williams_Khama\" target=\"_blank\">Ruth<\/a>, in a modest turn by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rosamund_Pike\" target=\"_blank\">Rosamund Pike<\/a> and African heir <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sir_Seretse_Khama\" target=\"_blank\">Seretze Khama<\/a>, played by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/David_Oyelowo\" target=\"_blank\">David Oyelowo<\/a>; another strong performance to add to his list. Their love, as seen in the opening scenes of the film, is not a fierce, passionate one, but one where each are equal and share love deeply in their own restrained way&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire review <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gal-dem.com\/amma-asantes-united-kingdom\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amma Asante\u2019s A United Kingdom gal-dem 2016-11-18 Grace Barber-Plentie Image via Telegraph The characters and scenarios in Amma Asante\u2019s A United Kingdom are like ghosts \u2013 they\u2019re long gone, long dead, and yet there is still a resonance and urgency to them that keeps pushing through to our subconscious, never letting us quite forget. Regardless [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1295,12,1245,5,459,8,10],"tags":[15678,25494,24052,21830,25496,24979,25495],"class_list":["post-50163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-articles","category-biography","category-book-reviews","category-history","category-media-archive","category-uk","tag-amma-asante","tag-david-oyelowo","tag-gal-dem","tag-grace-barber-plentie","tag-rosamund-pike","tag-ruth-williams-khama","tag-seretze-khama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50164,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50163\/revisions\/50164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}