One of the most captivating and passionate scenes in the recent Hollywood movie, Queen of Katwe, is when, after winning her first Chess Olympiad match, Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga) bolts out of the hotel and lets out a loud cry of jubilation that stuns everyone else.
In another match against a more experienced opponent at the World Chess Olympiad in September 2010 in Russia, Mutesi kicks off her sandals because she always plays barefoot at her chess club in Katwe, a slum in Kampala, Uganda.
Later, after losing her third match to an Egyptian grandmaster, Mutesi, one of the youngest competitors, tells her coach, Robert Katende (David Oyelowo): “Coach, I will be a grandmaster some day.”
“That will take a lot of work and perseverance,” Katende replies.
Actress Lupita Nyong’o poses with actor David Oyeloeo during the premiere of Disney’s Queen of Katwe in Hollywood, California on September 20, 2016
TRUE STORY
Queen of Katwe, whose premiere in Uganda was held in Kampala on October 7, is based on the true story of a deprived, young Ugandan girl, Phiona Mutesi, whose world changes rapidly after she is introduced to chess.
Life is a constant struggle for 10-year-old Mutesi and her family. After her father’s death, she drops out of school to sell boiled maize and vegetables on the streets of Katwe. Her mother, Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o), is a proud, strong-willed woman who sells vegetables to support her children.
They live in a tin-roofed dilapidated, windowless shack that gets flooded when it rains, whose rent Harriet struggles to pay. She is consumed by the daily grind and worries that she cannot offer them the promise of a better life.
However, Katende, a soccer player-turned-missionary, offers that promise. He runs a chess programme at Agape Church, a single-story rickety structure, using the game to engage and sharpen young minds. Chess cultivates abstract and strategic thinking, concentration, risk taking, innovation and creativity, skills that will prepare them for a formal education and a better life.
One day Mutesi follows her brother, Brian (Martin Kabanza), to the church and peeps through the cracks in the walls and observes Katende sharing the basics of chess with children her own age. She is captivated.
The next time she returns to the church, Katende spots her. “Young girl,” says the coach. “Come in. Don’t be afraid.”
Mutesi is impressed by the intelligence and wit the game requires and immediately shows potential. She joins the chess programme and quickly catches on to its meticulous rules.
She soundly roughs up one of the older members of the club who has been taunting her as a dirty girl from the slum and thereafter begins to command respect from the rest.
Actor David Oyelowo and actress Lupita Nyong'o, stars of "Queen of Katwe", at the film's premiere in Hollywood, California in the US on September 20, 2016. PHOTO
FIGHTING SPIRIT
Recognising Mutesi’s natural and extraordinary aptitude for chess and her fighting spirit, Katende starts mentoring her.
Meanwhile, Harriet does not understand the importance of the game. She is reluctant to encourage Mutesi and even forbids her to return to the church.
However, with Brian’s help, Katende manages to persuade Harriet to support her daughter’s dream of playing chess competitively.
Mutesi and two boys from Katwe represent Uganda in Africa’s International Children’s Chess Tournament. It is the first time she leaves Katwe and her first time to fly. When their plane passes through a cloud Mutesi turns to Katende, who is sitting beside her, and asks, “Is this heaven?”
“Heaven is little bit further,” Katende replies.
As Mutesi quickly advances through the ranks in tournaments, she breaks away from her family to focus on her own life. Her mother eventually realises that she has a chance to excel and teams up with Katende to help her fulfill her potential, escape a life of poverty and save her family.
Katende also begins teaching Mutesi to read and write.
However, Mutesi has to struggle with the contradiction between success and her life on the streets.
Queen of Katwe is based on a 2012 book by the same title by American sports journalist Tim Crothers. which Disney has turned into a successful Hollywood feature film.
Two years after Mutesi started playing chess, she became Uganda’s junior champion. Three years later, she became the national champion. Then, in 2012 at the age of 16 at her second Olympiad, she became a woman candidate master, the first step towards grandmaster, which is what she ultimately aspires to.
THE REST IS HISTORY
The rest is history and Mutesi and her family now live in a beautiful new home on Mityana Road, west of Kampala. With the earnings from the book and movie contracts, their financial future is guaranteed.
“Before I met Robert and started playing chess, I had lost all hope,” Mutesi says. “I was sad because I had just lost my dad and there was no money for school fees so I thought I would live on the streets forever. Since then I have travelled to many countries and met people I never expected to meet, which has helped restore my hope. I thank God I met Robert and learnt to play chess because it is chess that made all these things possible.”
Mutesi graduated from St Mbuga Vocational Secondary School in Kampala, where she was student president, this year and is seeking admission to a US college.
The $15 million (Sh1.5 billion) budget biographical sports drama is directed by Mira Nair.
Finding actors to play characters based on real people is not easy. Nair’s first choice for the role of Robert Katende was Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo, who had played Martin Luther King Jr in the film, Selma, two years earlier.
THE POWER OF DREAMS
Meanwhile, Lupita Nyong’o, who shot to fame with her Oscar-winning performance in 12 Years a Slave, broke down and cried after reading just 10 pages of the script. “It was the first time in a while that I had been so enlivened, inspired and challenged by a role I was considering,” she said. “I immediately sent an email to my representatives saying, ‘I must do this film.’”
“The story has a lot to do with the power of dreams,” Nyong’o continues. “Robert believes that dreams are what can manifest a life well lived, while for Harriet, dreaming is dangerous because it fills you with expectations that life might not be able to meet. For her, it is a tug-of-war between love and fear: to love is to fear for those you love. But then she realises that it is her fear that is holding her child back and she has to learn to let go of it.”
The casting for Mutesi’s role of took more than year, during which the filmmakers considered nearly 700 girls from the UK, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Ironically, they found their Mutesi just 15-minutes down the road in Kibuli, not far from Katwe, weeks before filming began.
Casting director Dinaz Stafford first spotted 14-year-old Madina Nalwanga at a dance rehearsal at the Sosolya Undugu Dance Academy and could not take her eyes off her. “While slightly older than what we were looking for, she was simply electric,” says Stafford. “I asked her to audition for the role and filmed her on my phone doing a simple scene and felt that she had the confidence to take on the part.”
It took another six weeks of intense workshops and training Nalwanga for Nair to be convinced that she could play Mutesi. “We were working in Ugandan English and English is not the language Madina thinks in. But ultimately she internalised the scenes to such an extent that language didn’t matter,” says Nair. “That was such a relief as I always wanted to film her. Her physicality is so arresting and her spirit so exquisite. And she is the real thing.”
“The only way to describe her is luminous,” adds Nair. “Madina has this light inside her that just shines, and from our first shot to our last, she was phenomenal. She’s an extraordinary, poised young woman who met every challenge with grace, humility and humour.”
Like Mutesi, Nalwanga was selling maize on the streets with her brother when the owner of the dance academy, which offers shelter, education and dance and drama skills to socially disadvantaged and vulnerable youth, found her.
“Phiona’s story is like my story,” Nalwanga says. “Her background is like my background, but for her it was chess that changed everything while for me it was dancing and singing.”
“You have to be very disciplined to be an actor,” Nalwanga adds. “And you must respect everyone. I made many friends during the filming and now think of them as family. I will carry everyone’s laugh in my heart and will never forget this experience.”
Queen of Katwe has received critical praise for its subject matter, casting, setting and music, attributes that are always lacking in many Hollywood films depicting Africa. The language, slang, mannerism, fashion and reflect the true Uganda.
“Katwe is the visual heart of the film,” says Sean Bobbitt, the director of photography. “As a news and documentary cameraman, I’ve been faced with drab poverty in slums all over the world, but Katwe is different. There is vibrancy there, a density of colour and a unique pallet. The contrast of the red earth with the yellows and blues they use to paint the buildings, the density of humanity, the bright elements of clothing, the constant movement. Everywhere we pointed the camera, there was something of beauty.”
“This story gave me a chance to bring to screen what I love about living in Uganda,” says Nair, who has lived in Kampala for 27 years. “To visually capture the human dignity of our people, the vibrant, original style, the streets that pulsate with life. It is about time that we saw an honest version of the place we live in.”
The film features cutting-edge Afro sounds and western soundtracks curated by the Ugandan rapper Young Cardamom (aka Zohran Kwame Mamdani).
Of the 30 songs used, 17 are Ugandan.
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‘Chess is life’
Katende founded the SOM Chess Academy in 2004, and has since transformed thousands of lives. In addition to helping children learn to play chess, the academy enrolls the youngsters in vocational training to help them become self-reliant and empowers them to work and attain their life goals.
“I believe chess is one of the most effective tools for empowerment and teaching life principles,” says Katende. “I always tell my students that chess is life, because whatever you go through in life, you can actually find on the board. And that connectivity — I sometimes call it integration — is very important. For instance, we face many challenges in life. Sometimes you are caught unawares, so you have to plan something else. Do you give up, or do you re-strategise and see how best you can get around it?”
“Our daily lives are like chess because you have to plan every move and understand what you hope to achieve,” Phiona Mutesi says. “When I’m going through the day, I have to think about how I’m going to get money for food, and when I’m playing chess I have to imagine how I’m going to get that king and win. You have to organise everything in your mind.”
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