Belle is a 2013 British period drama film directed by Amma Asante, written by Misan Sagay and produced by Damian Jones.

Very little is known about the life of Dido Belle, who was born in the West Indies and was the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of Mansfield's nephew, Sir John Lindsay.

Lord Mansfield ruled on this case in England's Court of King's Bench in 1786, in a decision seen to contribute to the Slave Trade Act 1807.

Arrangements are made for Elizabeth to have her coming-out to society, but Lord and Lady Mansfield believe no gentleman will agree to marry Dido because of her mixed race.

Fearing lower-ranking men will only marry her for her wealth, and that a marriage to a lower-status man will reduce her rank and shame the family, Lord Mansfield decides she will travel to London with her cousin but will not be "out" to society.

In 1783, Mansfield hears the case of Gregson v. Gilbert, about an insurance claim for slaves killed when thrown overboard by the captain of a slave-ship.

Dido sneaks into the court to hear Lord Mansfield narrowly rule that the slave-trading syndicate is not due insurance payments for the slaves whom the crew threw overboard during the voyage.

The slaves' quarters were overcrowded, making them sick and not likely to fetch a high price at auction, so the officers had decided they would be worth more in insurance payments after their "loss", and threw them overboard.

Elizabeth also married and had three children, and their joint portrait hung at Kenwood House until 1922, when it was moved to Scone Palace near Perth, the birthplace of Lord Mansfield.

It was one of the first European portraits to portray a black subject on an equal eye-line with a white aristocrat, though distinctions are implied by the poses, as Elizabeth's "formality and bookishness are contrasted with the wild and exotically turbanned 'natural' figure of Belle.

[16] Sir John Lindsay died on 4 June 1788, when Lady Elizabeth has been married years before and no longer lived in Kenwood.

[18] James Walvin, professor emeritus at the University of York, said of Belle: "Much of the historical evidence is there – though festooned in the film with imaginary relishes and fictional tricks.

[19] In the film "Tom Wilkinson's Mansfield finds his cold legal commercial heart softened, and edged towards abolition by the eyelash-fluttering efforts of his stunning great niece" and his "adjudication becomes, not a point of law, but the first bold assertion towards the end of slavery".

[24]"She is a sort of Superintendent over the dairy, poultry yard, &c., which we visited, and she was called upon by my Lord every minute for this thing and that, and shewed the greatest attention to everything he said."

Sir Lindsay, having taken her mother prisoner in a Spanish vessel, brought her to England, where she delivered of this girl, of which she was then with child, and which was taken care of by Lord M., and has been educated by his family.

In the film it was suggested that they were treated equally in the household, and that she would attend family parties; but that was not really the case, although Mansfield loved Dido, in real life she was treated as an illegitimate and poor relation, as American visitor Hutchinson reported in 1779: Dido was not allowed to dine with the family and guests (as depicted in the film) but joined the upper class ladies for coffee afterwards in the drawing-room.

Years later, more evidence of her awkward position was found from Mary Hamilton's diary in 1784, when she visited her cousin Lady Stormont (Elizabeth's stepmother) and the Murray family at Kenwood.

By comparison the 5th Duke of Devonshire, (one of the richest men in the kingdom) gave £30,000 for the dowry of his daughter Georgiana, 6th Countess of Carlisle.

The film was set in early 1778, which coincided with Lord Stormont returning to England due to France declaring its support for the American colonies' revolution against the British, and the ambassadors for both countries were recalled in March 1778.

Mary Hamilton wrote in her diary "went with Miss Eliza Murray ------ she is a remarkably nice & a good Musician for she not only plays in a Masterly manner but is a composer."

[32] The film is a work of historical fiction, inspired by a painting and the evidence that Dido was brought up at Kenwood House.

The relative lack of details about Dido Elizabeth Belle allowed screenwriter Misan Sagay considerable artistic licence in framing the young woman's story, within the broader historical context of the slave economy and the abolition movement.

The only other direct historical reference made about Belle, other than the painting and American loyalist Thomas Hutchinson's personal diary,[33][34] appear in Elements of Moral Science, a 1790 work by the Scottish professor of moral philosophy James Beattie, who met Belle and in the book states she recited poetry with "a degree of elegance"[35] equal to any English child of her age, arguing against the then prevailing theory that "negroes are naturally and utterly incapable of distinct articulation".

At the suggestion of the producers, HarperCollins published a companion book, Belle – The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice (2014), by biographer Paula Byrne, recounting the lives of the film's principal characters.

[37] Press releases that followed Fox Searchlight's acquisition of the film gave the final credit determined by the Writers Guild of America as "Written by Misan Sagay".

[38][39] Sagay claimed she began writing her script in 2004, after seeing the painting of Dido Belle at Scone Palace.

It then received funding from the British Film Institute in 2009, but Sagay left the project the following year due to serious ill-health.

[42] Information obtained by Entertainment Weekly showed Asante wrote 18 script drafts, before she directed the film.

[41][43] In July 2013, it was announced that Fox Searchlight Pictures had acquired distribution rights for the film in the UK and USA.

The site's consensus states: "It boasts all the surface beauty that fans of period pictures have come to expect, but Belle also benefits from its stirring performances and subtle social consciousness.