The last time a Hollywood movie based on Ugandan story was shot it went on to win lead actor Forest Whitaker a best actor Oscar for his portray of Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland.
The movie was based on Uganda’s tumultuous past and like most African stories, there was nothing positive apart from the portrayal of dictator Idi Amin who ruled Uganda in the 1970s as a murderous buffoon with as much too cringe at and laugh at in equal measure.
Now a new film based on a Ugandan, this time Phiona Mutesi a chess prodigy who is not celebrated back home and couldn’t get any heads turning if she took a stroll on Kampala Road is the subject of the Disney movie Queen of Katwe.
Queen of Katwe premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last weekend to rave reviews.
Unlike Last King of Scotland, Queen of Katwe is an uplifting movie about how Mutesi rose from the Katwe slums to a world chess champion.
The film that stars Oscar winner, Kenya’s Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo whose previous work was playing Martin Luther King in Selma. Newcomer Madina Nalwanga acts Mutesi in the movie under the directorship of acclaimed director Mira Nair.
Nair is as good as Ugandan and lives between the US and Uganda as her husband Mahmood Mamdani (you might remember him for the recent Stella Nyanzi naked protest) is the director of Makerere Institute of Social Research. Mira also runs the Maisha Film Lab to help develop film in Uganda.
The Guardian says Queen of Katwe could be the next Slum Dog Millionaire, a film that won eight Oscars in 2008.
CNN says the film that was showcased at the Toronto film festival over the weekend “has received some buzz as a potential awards season sleeper.”
Vanity Fair says Queen of Katwe is a bright and inspiring success.
“What a vibrant, lively, yet understated joy Queen of Katwe is.”
“This is a movie directed by an Indian woman and featuring an entirely black cast, with two female leads—a rarity in the Hollywood system that ought to be celebrated in its own right. The film is also good, which gives us double reason to be cheered,” Vanity Fair says.
“10 pages into reading the script I was crying,” Lupita Nyong’o said. “It was so refreshing. I hadn’t seen anything like this across my desk yet.”
The film premieres on September 30, in New York and a Kampala premiere is planned in early October.