In Jeff Nichols’ film, Loving is both a verb and a noun. Joel Edgerton and Oscar-nominated Ruth Negga play Richard and Mildred Loving, the interracial couple at the centre of the 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which ruled miscegenation laws of the time to be unconstitutional. After marrying, the couple were forced to leave Virginia and move to Washington, threatened with prison if they ever returned.

Far from a fist-pounding, message-spewing courtroom drama, Loving is an intimate portrait of two very ordinary people, notable not for their passionate political zeal, but rather their quiet humility.The two actors put in beautifully nuanced performances for characters who, by nature, say very little.

Edgerton taps into a specific expression of rural masculinity that’s strong, but also so humble that he’ll never meet anyone’s eye. Meanwhile, Negga is beautiful in her unexpressed heartbreak, a quietly joyful woman who loses herself when torn from her family and friends. Mildred’s love is expressed through acts of kindness, and a shy but radiant smile – a smile that disappears when the couple move to dismally grey Washington.