A United Kingdom
A United Kingdom
27 December 2016
The stirring and true story about fidelity to the one you love above all else is certain to capture mature audiences this year. A United Kingdom is a biographical drama based on the truelife romance of Sir Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams Khama.
Ruth is a welleducated woman living in 1940s post-war Britain. She meets Seretse at a dance organised by the London Missionary Society and they strike up what becomes an incredibly divisive relationship. The colour of Seretse’s skin scandalises Ruth’s friends and family, but the couple come under even more pressure to separate when it is revealed that her boyfriend is the heir of a disavowed African monarchy. Ruth is told that if she marries Seretse and supports his return, she will undermine England’s presence in Botswana, and bring about the end of the British Empire.
Filmed on location in both London and Botswana, A United Kingdom demonstrates just how far a seemingly Christian society had fallen from the equality of sex and race espoused by the early church: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Yet this story provides a cautionary tale of how wrong we can go as believers when we look to popular culture over the Bible as our guide for life.
In the case of Ruth and Seretse, the Bishop of London refused to allow the couple a church wedding unless the government gave permission. We can see the error of his ways now because the world has turned on questions of racism and apartheid. A United Kingdom reminds us that our first opinion on any action, any relationship, any person should be directed first by what Jesus has to say.
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