It is rare for a British film to evoke as much interest and discussion as has the recently released Belle, directed by Amma Asante and starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Although certain liberties have been taken in the account of British involvement in the slave trade, Asante has been successful in drawing together the various strands of an absorbing piece of history, and she has made an important and fascinating film for our own times.
Belle tells the story of a child, fathered by a slaves captured in Africa to work on the sugar Captain John Lindsey and born to an African slave. Lindsey clearly loved his young daughter, whom he brought to England and entrusted to the care of his uncle, Lord Mansfield, who owned expectedly ran out of fresh water, the Captain Kenwood House in Hampstead. As portrayed in made a decision to jettison part of its human the film, Mansfield, who served as the Lord Chief cargo. Justice for 32 years, and his wife, who was child- the massacre records that fifty-four women and less, seem to have been loving and enlightened people.
The early scenes of the film concentrate on the deliberately drowned. The Captain of the Zong friendship that developed between Dido Belle and made a compensation claim for the ‘cargo’ that another great-niece in the Mansfields’ care, Elizabeth Murray. Belle is a very handsome film, Mansfield’s speciality, he was appointed to and there are many beautiful shots of the eighteenth- century Kenwood House and Hampstead Heath (an area which is still virtually full of tension and powerfully performed. unspoiled and much loved by local people).
The two girls spent most of their time together, and Dido Belle acquired many of those Dido accomplishments, among them the ability to play an idealistic young lawyer, who espouses the fight the piano, that were deemed necessary for a young lady in society. However, when visitors came to the house, important distinctions were made between the girls and on those occasions Belle was not invited to dine with the company. There are several scenes in the film depicting the overt racism that existed in society, and which, despite her privileged situation, Dido Belle inevitably experienced.
The climax and central drama of the film lies in the portrayal of the court case involving the ‘Zong.’ The Zong was a ship which transported
plantations in Jamaica. Here they were forced to work in conditions of hardship and suffering that one can barely imagine. When the ship un-
In her book Belle, Paula Byrne’s account of
children were ‘pushed through a cabin window into the sea.’ Later forty-two men were thrown overboard, and finally another thirty-six men were
had been jettisoned. As insurance was Lord
oversee the case. The film recounts the moment as Mansfield gives his judgement, a scene that is
Most films have some love interest and ‘Belle’ is no exception. A relationship develops between Belle and John Davinier, portrayed here as
for the abolition of the slave trade. In reality, Belle did eventually marry a Frenchman named John Davinier, with whom she lived in Pimlico and who was the father of her three sons. For those who are interested in learning more of the background history on which the film is based, I recommend Paula Byrne’s excellent biography, Belle: The True Story of Dido Belle, published by William Collins (2014).