‘Queen of Katwe’ is an upcoming biographical sports drama film that tells an inspiring true story of Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan chess prodigy from Katwe who becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her performances at World Chess Olympiads.
“Phiona was living on the streets of Katwe when she stumbled across the outreach ministry that motivated children like herself and used chess to encourage them,” a description of the film reads. “The outreach encourages children to believe ‘What matters is when you reset the pieces and play again.’
The film is produced by Walt Disney Pictures and ESPN Films, and set for a limited release in North America on September 23, 2016, followed by a general theatrical release on September 30.
Film stars Academy Award-winner Lupita Nyong’o plays Harriet Mutesi, Mutesi’s mother, while Oyelowo has been cast as Robert Katende, a missionary who teaches children the game of chess.
The dictionary defines a slum as a heavily populated urban area characterised by substandard housing and squalor. Several Ugandan live in slums and yet we know little about life inside them.
The new movie brews hope from what transpires of images of makeshift homes constructed from the rubbish that the more affluent throw away; people cram on top of each other, alongside open streams of raw sewage and mounds of colourful trash made up from the detritus of modern life.
Katende helps the young chess prodigy, played by newcomer Nadina Malwanga, reach her pull potential and overcome her surroundings in the impoverished slums of Kampala, Uganda.
“Sometimes the place you are used to is not the place you belong. You belong where you believe you belong. Where is that for you?” Katende asks Mutesi in the trailer.
Nyongo’o recently said that the Ugandan culure surprised her and that she was excited to work with both Nair and Oyelowo.
https://youtu.be/pjef1N2lKf0
“There is a resilience of spirit in Uganda. The slum of Katwe is a very difficult place to live, but you see these people living there with dignity. To go there and to have that environment to work from really did give life and meaning to our work. It was research, obstacle and inspiration.” Nyongo’o told Entertainment Weekly.
“Queen of Katwe” is scheduled to be screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
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