Queen of Katwe
Finally got to watch the movie courtesy of one of our local TV stations and all that at about
5AM!
As a chess enthusiast it was a blast watching on camera some of the lessons that i had attempted to glean from life.
Lupita N'yongo the gorgeous attractive
IVY league actress from Kenya was in this
one too (she takes on the role of mother). I did mention her in some previous posts probably saddened that we were having difficulty putting away a fraction of our collective history. Frustrated that there was a smart core of people who were causing us to pay undue attention to certain parts of our lives by heaping praise and awards onto these specific subjects.
It is a great tale nonetheless. A journey that chronicles the life of a young talented girl-Phiona Mutesi (played by a new comer with plenty of promise-Medina Nalwanga) and her mentor/teacher Robert Katende (played by David Oyelowo) who discovers her skill at a strategy game and uses it to make some major moves from poverty
to prominence.
The movie gives you a glimpse into family life and the struggles a
single mother has to go through to raise her daughter. The
older sister and her tough decisions to make it out of the same
rutt and the moral questions that challenge both mother and
daughter. We get an insight into the difficulties that go with
life in a modern slum. The punishing rain that often destroys
makeshift homes. A blessing to some but a curse to many others.
We see distinct differences between the ghetto (a word that we
thought was banished in history somewhere in Poland) life and
a life of relative affluence in a historic school reserved for the sons
and grandsons of Chiefs. There are interesting battles between
those who make up these two worlds, battles which will often
play out in life in a setting that is clearly very stratified.
Life lessons are plenty in a manner only often familiar with third
world kids where humor and education and life are all meshed
up in a complex mix.
Watch as the mother struggles to deal with a child that has tasted of the better life and now has to return in submission to an older wiser woman although at this point the daughter feels like she has bypassed her.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the movie is the subtle use of
affection between young attractive student and older married
teacher and the use of the term queen which she (the student)
uses to mazimum effect when she keeps the queen piece of the
board which she shares enthusiastically and playfully with her
mentor/King.
The use of local settings and regular everyday occurrences such
as the market places, the motor cycle, the hospital visit and the
untimely exit, the flash floods, the dance, the songs that are sung while on the way to school in a minivan as well as the choice of
dark dull colours contrasted with the beautiful garments that are worn
by residents maybe as an insulation against the sheer 'starkness'
of some of the conditions in which thet live. Directed by Mira Nair (responsible for Missisipi Masala) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Nair
A good presentation if you ask me.
