Belle is a film written by Misan Sagay inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a British admiral, standing next to her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray. The painting was commissioned by their great-uncle William Murray, who was the Lord Chief Justice of England. Murray is caught in a moral dilemma: his love for his niece and his role as judge - the film follows the period in which he must rule on a court case that establishes whether black slaves are considered property or people, a decision that was seen to contribute to the abolition of slavery in Britain in 1786.