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The movie centers
on the story of Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Loving,
a black woman, who left their home state of Virginia, where
inter-racial marriage was illegal, to wed in Washington, D.C. in
1958.
Upon their return, they were first sentenced to prison, then
banished. They moved back to Washington but struggled to adapt
to life there and eventually filed a lawsuit against the
government of Virginia. The seminal 1967 Supreme Court ruling
that ended their case legalized interracial marriage throughout
the United States.
"Two human beings doing something together in a private space
that is non-threatening and non-destructive and yet they're
unable to do so," said Australian actor Joel Edgerton at the
premiere, commenting on a debate surrounding same-sex marriage
in his home country.
"It's really not a period film. It's very much a film about
now."
The film received widespread acclaim at the Cannes and Toronto
film festivals this year and is already tipped for Oscar
success. American director Jeff Nichols, known for the 2012 film
"Mud", and British producer and actor Colin Firth were both on
the red carpet in Los Angeles.
"I think a lot of people have come out of this film and gone
'Wow! I feel like I've been very complacent' and they're
thinking about things and entertaining things they wouldn't have
done beforehand, and I think that's the point of art, to shift a
consciousness," said Ruth Negga, who plays Mildred in the movie.
(Reporting By Reuters Television; Writing by Adela Suliman;
Editing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Hugh Lawson)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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