Queen of Katwe is based on the story of an Ugandan girl who sees her world rapidly change after being introduced to the game of chess.
In the Luganda language spoken in the Ugandan capital Kampala, there is no word for "chess". That absolute novelty bubbles away at the heart of Queen of Katwe, vividly directed by Mira Nair, with its tale of the discovery of chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi in the city slum of Katwe. It is based on a true story, as now seems a legal obligation for all new movies.
"Welcome," announces missionary Robert Katende, played by David Oyelowo, in the ramshackle chess class he sets up among tin-roofed shacks. "This is a place for fighters." And Mutesi is nothing if not one of those, her blue-sky talent matched by the brilliant aggression she brings to the board.
As the heroine — at first sweetly delighted by her gift, later sternly fired up — newcomer Madina Nalwanga gives off sparks. Oyelowo enjoys the dash of mischief in Katende. But Nair's masterstroke is extending her gaze beyond coach and rookie to the sprawling chaos of Katwe itself, an eye-popping world drawn with honesty and nuance — and to Harriet, Phiona's mother, brought to freighted life by Lupita Nyong'o. For every cliché the film indulges, another is skirted, and another subverted. By the end, every ounce of feelgood is deserved.
0 comments: