Amazing Grace Film - Synopsis

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know.” - William Wilberforce, 1789

From acclaimed director Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough, Coal Miner’s Daughter) comes Amazing Grace, the inspiring story of how one man’s passion and perseverance changed the world. Based on the true life story of William Wilberforce, a leader of the British abolition movement, the film chronicles his epic struggle to pass a law to end the slave trade in the late 18th century.

Ioan Gruffudd (Black Hawk Down, Fantastic Four) plays Wilberforce, a man born into the age of the Great British Empire when the country’s influence around the globe was at its most powerful. It was, however, an age when the rumblings of social discontent were emerging, and a time when reformers faced an uphill struggle to be heard.

A good friend of England’s youngest Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger (Benedict Cumberbatch, To the Ends of the Earth), Wilberforce is elected to the House of Commons at the age of 21, and entrusted by Pitt with the cause for the Abolition of Slavery.

In spite of his preternatural political prowess, Wilberforce finds himself torn between his successful rising career and his desire to give it all up for a life of spirituality. He seeks the advice of friend and mentor John Newton (Academy Award Nominee Albert Finney, Erin Brockovich), a former slave trader who turned to the Church in order to atone for his earlier life, who suggests that his best way for Wilberforce to serve God would be to fight injustice with his political influence. Inspired by Newton, Wilberforce quickly becomes the rallying voice in Parliament for a fragmented group of like-minded people to fight the cause and make the people of Britain, and ultimately the world, acknowledge the horror of the Slave Trade.

Amazing Grace follows Wilberforce’s career through his 20’s and 30’s, as he and his fellow humanitarians make the issue of slavery a talking point, not only in political circles, but also throughout the country. They wage the first modern political campaign, using petitions, boycotts, mass meetings and even badges with slogans to take their message to the country at large.

Boasting a terrific ensemble cast, Amazing Grace also stars Romola Garai as Barbara Spooner, the beautiful and headstrong young woman who shares Wilberforce’s passion for reform, and who becomes his wife after a whirlwind courtship. Michael Gambon (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) is Lord Fox, an MP that is convinced by Wilberforce to join the fight against the slave trade. Rufus Sewell (Legend of Zorro) plays Thomas Clarkson, one of Wilberforce’s allies in the anti-slavery movement, and Grammy winning Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour is Olaudah Equiano, an African sent as a slave to the Colonies who bought his freedom and made his home in London where he became a leading figure in the fight to end the slavery of his fellow countrymen.