There are so many movies released each year that a number
are left behind when it comes to box office glory. This is not to say the
movies are bad movies, just that they are overlooked for various reasons. Some
are missed because they don’t have the star power of other films. Some are
missed because of the sheer mass of hits released that same week. Some are
missed because of more blockbuster titles coming out at the same time. QUEEN OF
KATWE falls into that last category, not only at the theater but on disc as
well. With both JACK REACHER and INFERNO coming out at the same time many may
miss this movie. That’s a shame.
Based on a true story the movie tells the tale of Phiona
Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga), a young girl growing up in the slums of Katwe in
Uganda. Phiona’s life is hard. Her father died when she was young and her
mother Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o) is struggling to keep the family together
and to provide for them. Living in a shack and subsisting on selling maize she
gets on credit, Harriet and her family spend most of their time just trying to
live.
10 year old Phiona’s life completely changes when she meets
Robert Katende (David Oyelowo), an instructor in charge of a missionary project
that reaches out to children and teaches them chess. Fascinated by the game
Phiona and her brother begin to show each day to the mission, both to get
something to eat and to play the game.
When Harriet learns of what the two have been doing she is
angered. People have been telling her that this is a gambling den with people
betting on games. It takes some convincing by Katende to convince her otherwise
and to tell her just how good her children are at the game. She allows them to
return and Phiona begins to flourish. Katende begins to recognize the skill and
ease with which Phiona plays. He sees that she has the ability to be a
grandmaster, someone who can see moves in advance before the pieces on the
board are even moved.
Eventually Katende brings several of the best students to compete
in a regional contest. There they encounter prejudice, and not a white/black
style we are used to seeing but a class prejudice between the well-dressed
students from various schools to these street urchins with nothing. Their smug
attitude is erased when Phiona wins the championship.
The film follows the ups and downs of the lives of Phiona
and her family from there. Will she be able to move forward, to be provided the
opportunity to progress and become the champion that Katende sees in her? Will
her mother be able to provide for the family and keep them together? And will
the youngsters of one of the poorest slums in the world find hope in the moves
of chess pieces in the hands of young Phiona?
The movie revolves around several stories all going on at
once. The center piece is of course that of Phiona and her natural ability to
play chess. Her story also revolves around her growing up as the years pass and
of her dedication and wish for more for her family. That brings out the second
story going on here, that of her mother. A strong willed women determined to
hold her family together at all costs. She’s lost her husband and one child
already. Is she willing to do anything to retain her family now? And lastly
there is the story of Katende, a man who wants to teach these children and to
help them rise above the poverty and squalor that they have no choice but to
live in.
The movie is an uplifting tale that will cause the viewer
consider life as we know it. If you own a DVD player and are watching the movie
in a home with a roof, heat or air conditioning you are so far advanced from
the people in this story you are watching. If you don’t count your blessings
while watching then there is something far too cold within you. It helps you to
appreciate what you have and to wish the same for others.
The story raises you as you witness a young woman determined
to move up in life by moving game pieces on a board. Chess is more than a
simple game. It involves strategy, attention and skill. The side by side stories
of Phiona and Harriet show them both using what skills they have and learn to
move and advance their pieces forward, in Phiona’s case those on the board and
in Harriet’s the lives of her family. Both are skilled at what they do and have
the potential to achieve their goals, moving one piece at a time. In the end
you will find yourself cheering both Phiona and Harriet on in their struggles.
And you will wish that more could find a way to achieve their goals as well.
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