Belle (2013)

Directed by

Amma Asante

Genre

drama film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 44m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 731 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A mixed-race woman raised by aristocratic relatives navigates British high society in the 1700s. She becomes involved with a lawyer and her family faces a key court case about a slave ship massacre.

thoughtfulrestrainedromantichistoricalseriousbiographicalperiod-settingcharacter-driven

What happens

Belle is a 2013 British period drama film directed by Amma Asante, written by Misan Sagay and produced by Damian Jones. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, Penelope Wilton, Sam Reid, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Sarah Gadon, Tom Felton, and James Norton. The film is loosely inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle beside her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray at Kenwood House, which was commissioned by their great-uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, then Lord Chief Justice of England. Very little is known about the life of Dido Belle, who was born in the West Indies and was the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of Mansfield's nephew, Sir John Lindsay. She is found living in poverty by her father and entrusted to the care of Mansfield and his wife. The fictionalised story centres on Dido's relationship with an aspiring lawyer; it is set at a time of legal significance, as a court case is heard on what became known as the Zong massacre, when slaves were thrown overboard from a slave ship and the owner filed with his insurance company for the losses. Lord Mansfield ruled on this case in England's Court of King's Bench in 1786, in a decision seen to contribute to the Slave Trade Act 1807. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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