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. 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