And yet, when the triumph over adversity story is as well told as this, it’s always a pleasure to hear it again. The beats of the story are ones you’ll have seen countless times before. And, in her debut, Nalwanga is perfectly understated, her charisma growing as Phiona starts to feel special. Nyong’o, playing her first on-screen role since her Oscar win for 2013’s 12 Years A Slave, shows her breakthrough was no fluke, giving Harriet a determination that always seems one more misfortune from shattering, while David Oyelowo is a storm of personality as the chess coach. Queen of Katwe From the largest slum in Kampala, Uganda, to an international chess competition in Moscow and then to the world stage, the trajectory of Phiona Mutesi’s life has been stunningly swift. The rest of Phiona’s chess club is made up of huge personalities, oohing and aahing and bawling through their own matches or while watching Phiona, giving those scenes some of the requisite sports-movie flavour.
To combat this, in the scenes of Phiona playing at tournaments Nair takes the focus away from the board, where little bits of wood are being moved in tiny increments, and puts it on the spectators. At least that has pieces flying through the air. This is, in essence, a sports movie, yet Nair has lumbered herself with a ‘sport’ less spectator-friendly than tiddlywinks. However, it’s hard to escape a pertinent fact: chess is incredibly dull. Every frame sings with pattern and texture.
#QUEEN OF KATWE FREE PLUS#
Speaking of vivid, mention must go to Stephanie Carroll’s production design and Mobolaji Dawodu’s costumes, plus Sean Bobbitt’s cinematography. She doesn’t just scrape the surface for the bits that seem most exotic. Perhaps it’s because Uganda has been her home for several years, but Nair makes her world vivid and real. William Wheeler’s screenplay draws a Uganda that has the same complex social class system as any western country, not just a world of haves and have-nots.
Yet Nair lets a lot of those clichés slide, and doesn’t overplay Phiona’s achievements, wallow in squalor or overdo the rich/poor divide. Mutesi’s story offers every cliché of the ‘poverty prodigy’ genre, in which shy children - they’re always shy - who live in grim circumstances are introduced to a rarefied world of elitism, where their humble brilliance helps them beat the snob at their own game. When the triumph over adversity story is as well told as this, it’s always a pleasure to hear it again.
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