A Disney movie about a real-life chess prodigy, Queen of Katwe mostly does what you expect it to do (albeit vivaciously). Then, like its Ugandan heroine, Phiona Mutesi, it jumps eight moves ahead. For maximum euphoria, you need to stay in your seat until the very last credit has rolled.
Director Mira Nair has struggled for years to match the intensity of her 1988 debut, Salaam Bombay! Kids (not to mention desperate mums, surrogate parents and ghettos) definitely bring out the best in her. Katwe, a shanty town in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, is where Phiona (deceptively impassive newcomer, Madina Nalwanga) lives with her widowed mother (12 Years a Slave’s Oscar-winner, Lupita Nyong’o), and numerous siblings. Neither the children, nor the slum, are conventionally beautiful. Sensuality, however, is rife.
Our nine-year-old heroine becomes fascinated by a ramshackle church, where a Christian outreach worker, Robert (David Oyelowo, delightful), teaches urchins to play chess. Robert gets Phiona to enter the fold by offering her a peacock-blue mug full to overflowing with succulent, white porridge. In close-up, she licks the mug and the pleasure is all ours.
Naturally, the person getting most press attention is Nyong’o. The film’s key colour is orange and — dang! — Nyong’o looks good in orange. Though in a supporting part, she makes single mum Nakku Harriet central to the drama. Not since Sarbajaya, in 1955’s Pather Panchali, have we seen a parent so bitter, sensitive to slights, yet loving. During the epilogue Nyong’o hugs the real Nakku Harriet, a moment that made me want to cry.
It’s rare to see a quote unquote inspirational movie that doesn’t involve a white saviour (two years ago, via Million Dollar Arm, Disney tried to ram one of those down our throats). Nair’s offering is also refreshingly explicit about the usefulness of so-called negative emotions. Over and over again, it’s Phiona’s aggression that puts her ahead of the pack, able to beat not only rich kids but rich boys.
Tellingly, no attempt is made to explain why Phiona, by her mid-teens, is only playing other girls. Tragically, sexism rules in the real world of chess and plenty of twits (sorry, I mean twitterers) will tell you that the “gentle sex” are biologically incapable of besting men. True, there’s never been a female world chess champion but Queen of Katwe is all about looking ahead. Watch that space.
Cert PG, 124 mins
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