52 Films Directed By Women Vol 1: 60. A UNITED KINGDOM (Director: Amma Asante)
The final film in my review of fifty-two (well, sixty) films directed by women is ‘ A United Kingdom ’, director Amma Asante’s follow-up to her acclaimed ‘ Belle ’ (2014). Asante, born in London in 1969 to Ghanaian parents, is a former child actress who became a writer (the UK TV series ‘ Brothers & Sisters ’, about a Baptist choir in Liverpool, first broadcast in 1998) and a film director in 2004 with ‘ A Way of Life ’. It took a further nine years before the release of ‘ Belle ’, illustrating the difficulty of getting a second feature off the ground. Asante was primed to make her Hollywood debut in 2015 with the Warner Bros thriller ‘ Unforgettable ’ but left the project to make ‘ A United Kingdom ’. Whether she left ‘ Unforgettable ’ and then was approached by actor-producer David Oyelowo to direct ‘ A United Kingdom ’ isn’t clear. It is usual in the film business to develop several projects simultaneously and then to prioritise the one most likely to be green-lit...