For Queen and Country: African chess prodigy is the center of heartfelt biopic
The Disney studio, best known for live action films of a more fantastical sort, would seem to be a strange choice to make Queen of Katwe. Its contemporary Central Ugandan slums are a long way, metaphorically anyway, from the lands of Into The Woods, Tomorrowland, or even The Jungle Book.
Nevertheless, the provenance of this heartwarming film has real-life connections to the African country. Tendo Nagenda, a senior executive at Disney who developed the project, is a native of Uganda; and director Mira Nair (The Namesake, Mississippi Masala), though India-born, is married to a Ugandan and has lived in the country.
Based on an ESPN The Magazine article and later book by Timothy Crothers, Queen of Katwe tells the true story of Phiona Mutesi, a female chess prodigy who became a Candidate Master in the game after playing successfully at the World Chess Olympiad. The movie combines the story of Phiona’s emerging skills in the game with a classic fish-out-water tale of a slum girl entering the rarefied world of international chess.
Queen of Katwe effectively focuses on the three main figures in the story: Phiona (played by newcomer and native Ugandan Madina Nalwanga); her independent and fierce mother, Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o, Oscar winner for 12 Years a Slave); and Phiona’s patient, determined chess coach, Robert Katende (David Oyelowo, Selma). The movie’s drama hinges on the shifting interplay among these fascinating characters, seldom seen in a major studio picture.
Queen of Katwe also effectively portrays the experiences of Phiona and her chess teammates when they go from the slums of Katwe to the brave new world of private African schools and dignified chess tournaments. The film deftly showcases the profound disparities between the two worlds without condescending to the slum children characters.
Director Nair has built her reputation with films that celebrate people who confidently rise beyond the expectations of their modest circumstances. Here, she has an assured hand in shaping and moving this compelling story along. And cinematographer Sean Bobbitt finds sometimes-startling beauty in the multi-hued world of Katwe’s slums. I was tempted to dismiss the rich imagery of this movie as a Disneyfied gloss, but I eventually succumbed to the vivid integrity of the filmmakers’ vision.
Screenwriter William Wheeler’s script follows the predictable rhythms of a sports movie, but the fresh setting and unfamiliar milieu of chess hide some of the story’s more obvious beats. In the end, the viewer is captivated by Phiona and her triumphant ascension. Interestingly, the film ends with a compelling reminder of its real-life roots as the actors are paired with the actual person they have been portraying, and everyone’s pride in this film biography resonates.
