Queen of Katwe | |
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Directed by | Mira Nair |
Screenplay by | William Wheeler |
Based on | The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Sean Bobbitt |
Edited by | Barry Alexander Brown |
Music by | Alex Heffes |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 124 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Languages | English Luganda |
Budget | $15 million [2] [3] |
Box office | $10.4 million [3] |
Queen of Katwe is a 2016 American biographical sports drama film [4] directed by Mira Nair and written by William Wheeler. [5] Starring David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong'o, and Madina Nalwanga, the film depicts the life of Phiona Mutesi, a girl living in Katwe, a slum of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. She learns to play chess and becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her victories at World Chess Olympiads. [6]
Adapted from an ESPN magazine article and book by Tim Crothers, the film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and ESPN Films. Queen of Katwe was screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. [7] The film had a limited release in the United States on September 23, 2016, before a general theatrical release on September 30. [8]
Living in Katwe, a slum in Kampala, Uganda, is a constant struggle for 10-year-old Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga), her mother Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong'o) and younger members of her family. She and her younger brother help their mother sell maize in the market. She also helps care for her baby brother. Her world changes one day when she meets Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) at a missionary program. Katende coaches football and teaches children to play chess at a local center. Curious, Phiona approaches and learns the game. She becomes fascinated with the game and soon becomes a top player in the group under Katende's guidance.
Her coach, over the initial opposition of the local chess authorities, takes her and the team to a national school level tournament at a prestigious local school. The group initially finds itself ill at ease among the other participants and the more affluent surroundings. However, their talent wins the day and Phiona comes in first place.
The film then proceeds to trace the ups and downs of success at competitions and tournaments for Phiona and her fellow Pioneers. The struggles of life in Katwe are ever present and Phiona hopes that chess will provide a means of escape from Katwe for her and her family.
Phiona leads the Uganda team at the Chess Olympiad in Russia, confident that she will become a Grandmaster, securing the necessary finances to lift her family out of poverty. However, the competition proves too tough, and she yields to her Canadian opponent.
Phiona returns to Katwe, dejected and doubting her abilities. However, with the support of Coach Katende and the people of Katwe, she returns to chess, ultimately succeeding to the extent that she can purchase a home for her family.
Maurice Kirya and Ntare Mwine have supporting roles as Theo [10] and Tendo, respectively. Gladys Oyenbot and Rehema Nanfuka play minor roles as a shopkeeper and a nurse, respectively.
Additional Cast
Tim Crothers wrote The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster, which chronicled Phiona Mutesi's life. Published by ESPN in 2012, it was optioned that same year by Walt Disney Pictures. [11] Tendo Nagenda, Walt Disney Studios' senior creative executive, developed the project into production. He happens to be ethnic Ugandan. [12] With executive approval from studio president Sean Bailey, [13] Nagenda went to visit Mira Nair at her Ugandan home to recruit her to direct a film about Mutesi. Nair was captivated by the story, stating, "I have always been surrounded by these local stories but hadn’t done anything in Uganda since 1991. I love any story about people who make something from what appears to be nothing." [14]
Mira Nair met with Mutesi, her mother Harriet, and the chess group run by coach Robert Katende. She invited screenwriter William Wheeler to come to Kampala to conduct interviews with the principal figures as a foundation for a screenplay. [15] Nair filmed a high-concept short and presented it to Disney, to alleviate the studio's concerns about the film being entirely set in Africa. [15]
Wheeler believed that the film could fit within the Disney tradition of films about "underdog" sports stories, noting that:
"we were trying to ... gently expand the idea of what a 'Disney film' could be. Disney was very open to wanting to tell an aspirational story about someone from someplace that is not at all familiar to Western audiences ... this could really fit into one of the things that they do very well – which is telling sports underdog stories and finding the ways the story naturally intersects with that genre of film." [16]
Nair described Queen of Katwe as "a radical film for Disney in many ways.... It has beauty and barbarity side-by-side." [13] In January 2015, Disney studio chairman Alan F. Horn greenlit the film into production for US$15 million. [13]
In January 2015, David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o were cast as Robert Katende and Harriet Mutesi, respectively. They were Nair's first choices for the roles. Nyong'o said that she had decided to play the part after reading the script's first ten pages, saying "It was the first time I felt really awakened by a script and super challenged." [17] [18] Oyelowo immediately accepted the role, seeing the film as a "subversive work", given the lack of diversity in contemporary American cinema. [19] [20] Nair said that finding an actress to play Phiona was the most difficult. The casting search lasted from July to December 2014 and the production team auditioned nearly 700 girls. [15] The casting director found Madina Nalwanga in a community dance class. The 15-year-old Ugandan dancer was cast as Phiona. [5] [21]
Principal photography began in April 2015. [22] [23] The film was shot in the Katwe slums in Kampala, Uganda and in Johannesburg, South Africa. More than one hundred Ugandans were hired as extras for the street scenes; eighty had no prior experience with cameras. [24] Nair set up an acting boot camp to help prepare the children for their scenes. [25] Most professional Ugandan actors settled for roles as extras, including Gladys Oyenbot who acted as Lupita's stand-in double. [26]
Nair and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt used different visual approaches for the various matches which Mutesi plays. Katende, who was present at the shoot, designed the games, while Nair and Bobbitt worked on each shot. The chess scenes were complicated because the call sheet contained actual chess moves. Nair and editor Barry Brown cut the scenes to create some drama. [24] Production wrapped in June 2015 after 54 days of shooting. [2]
The musical score for Queen of Katwe was composed by Alex Heffes. [27] Heffes added that "It's a very thematic and gentle score that is more orchestral than something like Roots , although it's set in Africa [...] There are plenty of authentic Ugandan needle drop tracks in the film to set the scene so the score could concentrate more on the music story telling." [28]
Alicia Keys wrote and recorded the song "Back to Life" for the film; it was released on September 9, 2016 by RCA Records. [29] The official soundtrack album was released on September 23 by Walt Disney Records, with its deluxe edition also releasing the same day. [30] [31]
Queen of Katwe had its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10. [32] Disney held the corporate premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on September 20, [33] with another screening at the Urban World Festival on September 22. [34] The African premieres were held in Kampala on October 1 [35] and Johannesburg on October 5. [36] The film had its European debut at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival on October 9. [37] Another screening was held at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico on October 22. [38] On November 12, it was screened at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival on the 24th. [39] [40]
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray and DVD on January 31, 2017, with a digital release on January 10. [41]
Queen of Katwe opened on September 23 as a limited release in the United States, with an estimated Friday total of $82,000 averaging $1,577 per screen across 52 selected theaters. By the opening weekend, it earned $304,933 averaging $5,864 per screen. [42] It opened on wide release on September 30 to 1,242 screens, and went on to gross $2.5 million in the first week. [43]
Queen of Katwe received positive reviews from critics, with David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o's performances receiving unanimous praise. [44] [45] Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 94% based on 191 reviews and an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Queen of Katwe is a feel-good movie of uncommon smarts and passion, and Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo's outstanding performances help elevate the film past its cliches." [46] On Metacritic, the film has a normalized rating of 73 out of 100 based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [47] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale. [42]
Mira Nair is an Indian-American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spheres. Among her best known films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion–winning Monsoon Wedding, and Salaam Bombay!, which received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.
Katwe is an area in the city of Kampala, Uganda's capital.
Phiona Mutesi is a Ugandan chess player. She has represented Uganda at four Women's Chess Olympiads, and is one of the first titled female players in Ugandan chess history. Mutesi is the subject of a 2012 book and a 2016 film called Queen of Katwe.
"Back to Life" is a song by American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, released on September 1, 2016, for the soundtrack of the sports drama film Queen of Katwe, directed by Mira Nair. The song was written by Alicia Keys, Illangelo, and Billy Walsh. Production of the song was handled by Keys and Illangelo.
Lupita Amondi Nyong'o is a Kenyan and Mexican actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award and a Daytime Emmy Award, and nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award.
Maurice Kirya born in Jinja and raised in Najjanakumbi to Tonny Munobbi and Sophie Baguma.
The Uganda Chess Federation (UCF) is the governing body of chess competition in Uganda and a member of FIDE, the international chess federation. It administers the official national chess rating system which awards both numeric ratings and titles of distinction. The UCF was founded in 1972, became affiliated with the National Council of Sports in 1973, and in 1978 was affiliated with FIDE, the first Federation in East Africa to achieve this.
Esteri Tebandeke is a Ugandan filmmaker, actress, dancer and visual artist. She is a graduate of the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Art at Makerere University.
Queen of Katwe (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2016 American film Queen of Katwe directed by Mira Nair. It was released by Walt Disney Records on September 23, 2016. The film, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and ESPN Films, stars David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong'o, and Madina Nalwanga, and depicts the life of Phiona Mutesi, a girl living in Katwe, Uganda, who learns to play chess and becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her victories at World Chess Olympiads. The film is based on inscripts from the ESPN magazine article and a book written by Tim Crothers, based on her life.
Odeke Peter Paul is a Ugandan film, voice and theatre actor, radio presenter and voice artist. He is not new to acting, having been exposed to stage drama in his primary and secondary schools; however, his first experience with the National Theatre came in the early 1990s with “SPECTRUM”, a contemporary dance-drama group that followed in the infamous style of the Namasagali College’s productions.
Jackie Akello is a Uganda singer-songwriter and entrepreneur with a coffee brand Village Belle which she launched in 2017. She sings in Acholi, Luganda, Swahili, and English. She is known for her hit love ballad "Amari", the gospel hit "Samanya" with Levixone, and the war-themed pop hit "Apwoyo". Akello is an Acholi from northern Uganda, and most of her songs, like "Apwoyo" talk about the suffering of the Acholi both during and after the Lord's Resistance Army war that left Acholis out of their homes for a long time.
Gladys Oyenbot is a Ugandan actress, singer and producer professionally known by her mononym Oyenbot. She is known for playing Dorotia on Mpeke Town (2018), and as Beatrice on the award winning drama series Yat Madit Yat Madit (2016). In 2020 she starred in numerous films including a thriller film The Girl in the Yellow Jumper, in a legal drama film Kafa Coh, Family Tree, and Down Hill. She also had starring roles in a romantic drama series Love Makanika (2015) by Dilman Dila, Reflections (2018) by Nana Kagga and 5 @Home(2017) which aired on Fox Life Africa. Her other notable screen work includes a Haunted Soul (2013), Day 256(2017), Communion (2018), King of Darkness (2015), and Kyenvu (2018) the multi award winning short film she co- produced alongside Hedwyn Kyambadde.
Madina Nalwanga is a Ugandan actress known for her lead role as Phiona Mutesi in Queen of Katwe (2016). The film depicts the life of Mutesi, a Ugandan girl living in a slum in Katwe who learns to play chess and becomes a Woman Candidate Master. This role earned her the Most Promising Actor award at 2017 Africa Movie Academy Awards in Lagos, Nigeria. She also won an NAACP Image Award, a Women Film Critics Circle Award, and was nominated for a Critic's Choice Award.
Sarah Ssentongo Kisauzi is a Ugandan actress most known for her role as Nalweyiso, the mean mother-in-law, in the 2013 NTV television drama series Deception.
Carina Nel is a South African actress. Nel started as a theater actress, but later became a popular television actress particularly with the two soap operas Generations and 7de Laan.
Robert Katende is a Ugandan chess coach, footballer, and engineer. He is also the executive director of Sports Outreach.
Ivy Claire Amoko is a Ugandan chess player. In 2014, she became the first woman Fide Master in East Africa.
Gloria Nansubuga is a Ugandan Chess player who became the youngest chess player in Ugandan history to be awarded a chess title of Woman FIDE Master by the year 2018.
The game of chess has a history of being played in the continent of Africa. Its play in South Africa is of particular interest to chess writers and historians.
Tendo Nagenda is an American film producer and former studio executive, described as "one of the most high-profile black film executives."