Belle (2013) is a British film inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804) who was born to an enslaved woman and a captain of the British Royal Navy.

In the film, Dido’s father (Matthew Goode) finds his daughter (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) living in poverty in Florida and takes her to England to be raised by her great-uncle, the Lord Chief Justice of England. William Murray (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson) were also raising another niece Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon) at their house in Hampstead.

Much of the film explores the racism Dido Elizabeth Belle would have experienced despite her being an heiress on the death of her father.

The film also explores the beginning of the abolition movement as it tells the story of the Zong massacre, the mass killing of more than 130 enslaved Africans aboard the British slave ship Zong. In Belle, it is William Murray who hears an appeal and decides for the insurers and against the syndicate of slave-owners.