Belle – a film based on the life of London’s Dido Elizabeth Belle opens today in the US, and in June in the UK. It is set in Kenwood House and shot around FilmFixer London locations, including Bedford Square and Carey Street in Camden.

The film is inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido beside her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray. Commissioned by William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

Dido Belle is the mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy officer, brought to England by her father and left in the care of his uncle, Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, at his estate of Kenwood House. Despite being considered an outsider by many, Dido is raised by Mansfield as an aristocrat alongside her cousin Elizabeth. Around this time, Mansfield is deliberating on a slavery case that will advance the cause of the Abolitionists.

Watch the trailer here…