Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay is born in 1761, the illegitimate daughter of Captain Sir John Lindsay, a Royal Navy officer, with Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman in the See more

Filming began on 24 September 2012. The film was shot on location in the Isle of Man, Oxford and London. It is the first major British motion picture to be shot in true-4K, using Sony's F65 … See more

The film is a work of historical fiction, inspired by a painting and the evidence that Dido was brought up at Kenwood House. … See more

• Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido Elizabeth Belle, the protagonist. She is a strong-willed and well-educated young woman, born from Captain Sir John Lindsay's affair with an enslaved … See more

The 1778 painting, once thought to be by Johann Zoffany, is now attributed to David Martin. The painting hung in Kenwood House until 1922 and now hangs at Scone Palace in Perthshire, Scotland. It was one of the first European portraits to portray a black subject on an … See more

Sagay chose to set the major events, Belle's and Elizabeth's love affairs and the Zong case, in the same year the painting was made – when Belle was about 18. In reality, Belle married … See more

Some press coverage ahead of filming cited Asante as the sole writer of Belle as well as director. Press releases that followed Fox Searchlight's acquisition of the film gave the final … See more