Loving
classified 12APlease note: This was screened in Feb 2017
Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special) directs Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga (who has just been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar®) in this true story of a couple who waged a decade-long legal battle contesting the state of Virginia’s laws prohibiting interracial marriage.
In 1958, with the Civil Rights movement still in its infancy, Richard Loving (Edgerton), a white construction worker, proposes to Mildred (Negga), a black manual labourer, and she says yes. What should be a happy beginning to their life together soon becomes an arduous legal and political battle against the state and society, as they experience arrest, trial, forced exile, kids and, finally, a historic battle with the Supreme Court.
A sensitive and understated look and love and trust, Nichols' film recognises how far the world has come while implicitly reminding us how far there is still to go.