by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
“Phiona Mutesi, standing right here, did not have privilege on her side, but what she did have was a fighting spirit,” said Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o as she introduced her new film, Queen of Katwe at the Newseum. The film itself follows the journey of a young girl in Uganga, Phiona, who discovers a penchant for chess and rises through the international chess scene as a prodigy, despite her upbringing in a poor African suburb.
Lupita Nyong’o
Nyong’o, who plays Phiona’s mother in the film, reflected on her own early days being raised in Kenya and noting that she enjoyed opportunities that the characters in the story didn’t have, but that mentorship helped to bring out the best version of all the people represented in the story. “This film is about the small one becoming the big one,” said Nyong’o before a crowd of DC influencers and lawmakers, and joined on stage by the real life Phiona and her chess coach Robert Katende, who is played in the film by David Oyelowo who was also in attendance.
David Oyelowo
Oyelowo who was reunited in this film with Nyong’o after they both appeared in the acclaimed “Twelve Years a Slave” called the film a love letter to his daughter, noting specifically as a new US citizen he was proud to praise President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their outreach and mentorship initiatives, My Brother’s Keeper and Let Girls Learn, respectively.
Nyong’o said that the story shows Mutesi and her coach “aspiring for greatness and they achieve it.” The film is obviously about a young girl learning to play chess, but it’s also a coming-of-age film about growing up, and amidst the backdrop of African poverty, young children have to sometimes grow up quicker than they would in other parts of the world.
Chess becomes the symbol for life in the film; that each move you make should be strategic and thinking ahead and also the lesson that every move has a consequence. Phiona and the other children in the film live in a Katwe, a poor suburb of Kampala, Uganda where selling spices and fish in a market is far more common than learning games of skill, but Robert Katende (Oyelowo) uses the chess classes as a way of breaking through to the children. As they learn, the kids begin to excel and even earn the chance to attend tournaments outside of their village which comes with both blessings and curses. In the film, the children are seen sleeping beneath the beds they are offered at the out of town tournament to show that escaping poverty isn’t just about leaving the slum. Mutesi herself struggles with balancing a desire to achieve with a balance to survive when her brother lands in the hospital after her first tournament win and financial hardships land front in center above chess in priority.
The film at whole is uplifting though as Mutesi and the other children of Katwe learn to use the logic and reasoning of chess as a means to help solve problems across their lives. The true story that took place only as far back as 2008 is sure to capture attention and hearts with modern day proof that anything is possible if you believe in yourself.
