Queen of Katwe

Plot

Living in the slum of Katwe in Kampala, Uganda, is a constant struggle for 10-year-old Phiona (Madina Nalwanga) and her family. Her world changes one day when she meets Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) at a missionary program. Katende coaches soccer and teaches children to play chess. Curious, Phiona approaches and learns the game. She becomes fascinated with it and soon becomes a top player under Katende's guidance. Over several years, her success in competitions and tournaments leads to greater competitions, stress, and identity issues. Phiona must learn more than the game as she is exposed to life outside Katwe. Her education, both formally and informally, continues as she dreams of escaping a life of poverty for herself, her mother, and her siblings.

Cast

Maurice Kirya and Ntare Mwine have supporting roles as Theo and Tendo respectively.

Development

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. Tendo Nagenda, Walt Disney Studios' senior creative executive and of Ugandan descent, developed the project into production. With executive approval from studio president Sean Bailey, Nagenda went to visit Mira Nair at her Ugandan home to tell the story of Mutesi. Mira 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." Mira Nair met with Mutesi, her mother Harriet, and the chess group run by coach Robert Katende. Mira Nair then invited screenwriter William Wheeler to come to Kampala to conduct interviews with the principal figures as a foundation for a screenplay. Mira Nair filmed a short high-concept and presented it to Disney, to alleviate the studio's concerns about the film's story being entirely set in Africa. 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." Mira Nair defined Queen of Katwe as "a radical film for Disney in many ways.... It has beauty and barbarity side-by-side." In January 2015, Disney studio chairman Alan F. Horn greenlit the film into production for US $15 million.

Casting

In January 2015, David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o were cast as Robert Katende and Harriet Mutesi, respectively. They were Mira Nair's first choices for the roles. Nyong'o said that she had decided to play the part after only reading the script's first ten pages, declaring "It was the first time I felt really awakened by a script and super challenged." Oyelowo immediately accepted the role, seeing the film as a "subversive work" given the lack of diversity in contemporary American cinema. Mira Nair claimed that finding an actress to play Phiona was the most difficult, with the casting search taking from July to December 2014 and the production team auditioning nearly 700 girls. The casting director then found 15-year-old Ugandan dancer Madina Nalwanga in a community dance class, and she was cast as Phiona.

Filming

Principal photography began in April 2015. The film was shot entirely in Africa, in the slums of Katwe in Kampala, Uganda and in Johannesburg, South Africa. Over one hundred Ugandans worked as extras for the street scenes within the film, eighty of them without any prior experience of cameras. Mira Nair worked with the children by setting up an acting boot camp to help them.

Mira Nair and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt used different visual approaches for the various matches Mutesi plays. Katende, who was present at the shoot, designed the games, while Mira Nair and Bobbitt worked on each shot. The chess scenes were complicated because the call sheet contained actual chess moves. Mira Nair and editor Barry Brown cut the scenes to create some drama. Production wrapped in June 2015 after 54 days of shooting.

Music

The musical score for Queen of Katwe was composed by Alex Heffes. "It's a very thematic and gentle score that is more orchestral than something like Roots, although it's set in Africa," said Heffes. "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."

Alicia Keys wrote and recorded the song "Back to Life" for the film; it was released on September 1, 2016 by RCA Records. A soundtrack album was released on September 23 by Walt Disney Records.

Release

Queen of Katwe had its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10. Disney held the corporate premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on September 20, with another screening at the Urban World Festival on September 22. The African premieres were held in Kampala at the Century Cinemax on October 1 and Johannesburg at Fourways on October 5. The film held its European debut at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival on October 9. Another screening was held at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico on October 22. On November 12, it was screened at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival on the 24th.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray and DVD on January 31, 2017, with a digital release on January 10.

Box office

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. It opened on wide release on September 30 to 1,242 screens, and went on to gross $2.5 million in the first week.

Critical response

Queen of Katwe received positive reviews from critics, with David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o's performances receiving unanimous praise. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 93% based on 148 reviews and an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's 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." On Metacritic, the film has a normalized rating of 73 out of 100 based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A+" grade.