(As released) Academy Award winner Judi Dench ("Shakespeare in Love") reunites with Academy Award-nominated director Stephen Frears (The Queen), and returns to the role of Queen Victoria in "Victoria & Abdul."
The screenplay of "Victoria & Abdul" is by Academy Award nominee Lee Hall ("Billy Elliot"), based on journalist Shrabani Basu’s book "Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant," which brought to light the long-hidden history of Victoria and Abdul from their own diaries and journals.
"Victoria & Abdul" tells the extraordinary true story of the amazing and unlikely friendship between Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and a young clerk, Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), who becomes her teacher, her spiritual advisor, and her devoted friend.
In 1887, Abdul travels from India to present a ceremonial medal as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee but surprisingly finds favor with the elderly Queen. The unprecedented and unlikely relationship causes a battle royale within the royal household, pitting the Queen against court and family. Victoria & Abdul humorously explores questions of race, religion, power, and the farce of Empire through the prism of a highly unusual and deeply moving friendship.
This Focus Features presentation is in association with Perfect World Pictures and in association with BBC Films of a Working Title production in association with Cross Street Films.
The film is now showing exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Trinoma, Glorietta 4, Alabang Town Center).