Wilberforce film points to task of modern abolitionists

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Britain. It was a hard-won victory for the abolitionists, who, under the leadership of young politician William Wilberforce, endured 20 years of frustration in an unsympathetic parliament before a bill banning slavery was finally passed. Wilberforce, an evangelical Christian and protégé of former slave trader turned pastor John Newton, was motivated in this quest by his deep religious faith. But Michael Apted, the director of the Wilberforce biopic Amazing Grace, insists that in telling this story he was more interested in politics than in preaching and prayer. "To me, what’s exciting about Wilberforce is that he was a man who had spiritual beliefs, and was very uncompromising about them, but nonetheless lived in the political world and had a lot of political acumen", says Apted. "I didn’t want to diminish the faith of Wilberforce; that’s crucial to his character. But I wanted to make the centre of the film about politics, and then use whatever else we need of his life to illuminate who he is." Apted already has a brief but notable track record in the realm of biopics, having previously helmed ‘true stories’ such as The Coalminer’s Daughter and Gorillas in the Mist. He admits that when it comes to condensing a person’s life into a film, a degree of artistic licence is necessary. "All you can do is honour the spirit of the character and the spirit of the times,” he says. “What helped us with Wilberforce is that we didn’t treat it as a straight biopic. We messed around with time and put the political event in the middle of it." "I’ve been looking for years to do a film about politics", he continues. "I can’t stand that politics generally gets a bad rap, although I completely understand that position. I was looking for a story that threw a different light on political action; showed it in a valuable, heroic, light. It was a very hard to find anything." "And then this film about Wilberforce came to me, and at the centre of it was this anti-slave trade story. I thought, well, this is a great opportunity — maybe this is what I’ve been looking for." The film captures this key period of Wilberforce’s political career