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Life in one of Uganda"s worst slums is one of daily struggle. Without basic utilities, food and safe housing, many people fend for themselves on the street.
After losing her father, Phiona Mutesi and her family found themselves homeless in the Katwe slum fighting to survive.
Many residents in Katwe remain in the slum for their whole lives. But for Phiona, a fateful encounter with the game of chess changed her entire path. Join her as she walks through Katwe, recounting her life on the streets and how she"s using her advanced chess skill to give hope to the next generation of Uganda"s slum kids.
Phiona"s story is the basis for the Walt Disney film "Queen of Katwe."
Most movies that fall under the umbrella of feel good have a few things in common. Theyre often, to varying degrees, sentimental or agreeably superficial. They follow fairly straightforward emotional arcs that end in upliftwith a triumph or epiphany or a moral lesson learned. They can be guilty pleasures (Love Actually), nostalgic classics (The Princess Bride), romantic weepies (The Notebook), or tales of transformation (The Shawshank Redemption). Or, in the case of the latest Disney film Queen of Katwe, they can be biographical sports dramas.
Sports movies are especially prone to telling feel-good stories because they follow a simple formula: a protagonists journey to becoming a winner. And what feels better than watching someone struggle only to come out on top? The young woman at the heart of Queen of Katwe did precisely that. Directed by Mira Nair, the film follows Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan girl living in the Kampala slum of Katwe who learns to play chess and quickly emerges as a prodigious talent despite not knowing how to read. Within a few years, she becomes good enough to play nationallyand then on a global stage. Today, shes one of the first two women from Uganda to become titled chess players.
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Like most feel-good films, Queen of Katwe doesnt shy away from platitude-filled dialogue and aww-inspiring moments and meaningful swells of music. But neither does it feel like just another charming underdog story. Thanks in part to a wonderful lead performance by the newcomer Madina Nalwanga, Queen of Katwe offers a surprisingly nuanced portrait of a young woman learningin the most difficult of circumstancesthat winning can be a complicated joy. Victory sometimes equals redemption or happiness or money or fame, but it doesnt always guarantee those things. Sometimes, winning can be confusing or isolating. Sometimes, it can even feel empty. These are unconventional, but worthy lessons for a family-friendly Disney movie like Queen of Katwe to unpack, and in some ways, the films streaks of realismnot fantasyare what make it such a genuine pleasure to watch.
Queen of Katwe isnt interested in offering an easily digestible account of Mutesis life, a fact that might help explain the films hefty 124-minute running time. The movie begins in 2007: Phiona and her younger siblings live with their widowed mother, Nakku Harriet (played beautifully by Lupita Nyongo), in a hut they can barely afford with the money they make from hawking maize. Their community of Katwe is a desperately poor one, but Nairs skillful directing finds the beauty in both the place and the lives of its inhabitants. The film neither pities nor romanticizes their poverty and industriousness. How is your life, Phiona? one neighbor cheerfully calls out to her by way of greeting early in the movie. It is fine, she replies with a smile that suggests by fine she means not okay but wonderful.
Wonderful is an optimistic overstatement, to be sure. Phiona only comes across a childrens chess club run by a local Christian ministry because shes hungry, and they have free porridge. The other children arent kind to her at first (She smells! one screams), but their teacher, Robert Katende (played by David Oyelowo), welcomes her, saying, This is a place for fighters. Phionas curiosity is piqued when her peers begin to explain why they like the game so much. In chess, one boy says, the small one can become the big one. The David-and-Goliath metaphor is just one of many Queen of Katwe uses to sum up the existential appeal of chess: The game doesnt care how strong or rich you are, but it can teach you to strategize your way to a better life. In other words, its about power and escape.
Disney
Its no surprise that Phiona commits to practicing her game wholeheartedly,soon becoming the clubs best player under Katendes dogged mentorship. The movie is loosely structured around her risethrough local tournaments, country-wide championships, the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Russiaand the many bureaucratic challenges she and her fellow teammates face. But in between these dramatic inflection points, Queen of Katwe carries out an intimate psychological and emotional study of its subject.
Nalwanga fully captures the ambivalence Phiona feels as she improves her game and eventually gains international attention for Uganda. At times, Phiona sees her talent as a weapon, as a way to knock her smug, wealthy opponents down a couple pegs. Other times, it brings little more than anxiety and self-doubt. The film wisely stops short of selling Phionas chess genius as some kind of golden ticket out of Katwe, and takes care to spend time with Nyongos character, who tries to protect her daughter from danger and disappointment, while keeping their family afloat.
Queen of Katwes focus on its supporting characters is key: Woven into the tale of Phionas ascent is the belief that community is indispensable. As much as it celebrates its heroines intelligence and persistence, the movie isnt in the business of monomyth-making. In addition to her mother and to Katende, Phiona is surrounded by sparkling charactersher chess-playing peers from Katwe, her siblings, her neighborswho come to life thanks to the unknown actors who play them. Her triumph is the triumph of her hometown, a place very much unaccustomed to this kind of glory. Her pride is their pride.
While inspirational biographical films are some of Hollywoods favorite projects to make, Queen of Katwe stands out for being a rare major studio movie with an all-black cast (including a female lead) thats directed by a woman of color. Statistically, such movies barely exist. So when they do exist and they happen to be gorgeously shot, well-acted, and with an original story to tell, it feels like a clear victory for the industry, filmmakers, and audiences alike. There may be viewers and critics who, unfortunately, find it hard to look past some of the more familiar feel-good tropes to fully appreciate all the ways in which this film is a novelty. But especially coming after an atrocious summer-movie season and amid criticism of Hollywoods problems with representation, Queen of Katwe deserves praiseboth for the story it tells and how it chose to tell it.
