It’s a setting that could not possibly have been duplicated on a soundstage, and this fact alone-Queen of Katwe’s commitment to authenticity-puts it quite a few notches above the majority of feel-good movies traditionally coming out of Disney Studios.
Advertisement
The most stunningly original-and most powerful-thing about Queen of Katwe is that it was shot entirely on location in Africa, primarily in the actual suburban neighborhoods of Kampala, Uganda, where the chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi has spent most of her 16 years-and where her incredible story actually unfolded. It’s family entertainment in the freshest sense of the term, a biographical drama, based on a true story, . Accordingly, platitudes (“In chess, the small one can become the big one”, and “You must never surrender.”) abound.
The real Phiona Mutesi is a national hero and educational leader in Uganda who’s on her way to becoming a chess grand master.
As if to correct the worst commonplaces of Africans’ depiction in the mainstream American cinema, Queen of Katwe focuses not on ceaseless strife or faceless crowds, but on the coexistence of distinct individuals within the collective, whether it be the family, the chess team, or the Kampalan slum.
Dirt streets bustle with rickety buses, motorbikes and street vendors. With exuberance and an irresistibly warm smile, she convincingly takes the film’s heroine, Phiona, on an eventful five-year journey: from an illiterate 9-year-old novice peeking through a crack in the wall to view the children playing chess, to a 13-year-old savant who strategizes like no other. He sees tremendous potential in her, and guides her to achieve. So she obviously knows the territory.
Still, even actors as good as this bunch can’t disguise the fact that there’s nothing special about “Queen of Katwe”. Theirs is a ramshackle existence in the Katwe slums, where simply keeping a roof over their heads is a struggle.
Advertisement
QUEEN OF KATWE (PG for thematic elements, an accident scene and some suggestive material.) Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, David Oyelowo, Madina Nalwanga, Martin Kabanza.
