Queen of Katwe

Story

Queen of Katwe is based on a true story about a young girl, Phiona Matesi (Madina Nalwanga), who comes from the slums of Kampala in Uganda. She lives an impoverished life with her widowed mother, Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o), her older sister, Night (Taryn Kyaze), and her two brothers, Brian (Martin Kabanza) and Richard (Ivan Jacobo).

Phiona helps her mother sell vegetables every day at the market. One day she follows her brother Brian to the Sports Ministry Outreach Church, where she watches him and several other children learning to play chess. Their teacher is Robert Katende (David Oyelowo), a former footballer and engineer, who has taken a position as a sports missionary to help these disadvantaged children.

Robert invites Phiona in to play chess. Robert soon realises that Phiona is a chess prodigy and encourages her to enter tournaments, against her mother’s judgment. She goes on to be a successful chess player, winning the Ugandan Women’s Junior Championship when she’s only 11. She also wins Africa’s International Children’s Chess Tournament in 2009 with teammates Ivan (Ronald Ssemaganda) and Benjamin (Ethan Nazario Lubega). She’s able to return to school with much support from the Church.

Themes

Poverty and hardship; prejudice; prostitution; loss of a parent

Violence

Queen of Katwe has some violence. For example:

Harriet kicks out at Night’s boyfriend Theo (Maurice Kirya) because she knows he’ll use Night as a prostitute. She warns him to leave her daughter alone or she’ll hurt him.
The children all tease Phiona when she first comes to the chess club because she smells. She eventually hits back at them when they spit at her and snort at her, calling her a pig.
Harriet grabs Phiona and Brian by their ears and marches them out of the room.
Brian is standing in the road when he’s suddenly hit by a motorbike, which knocks him unconscious.
Harriet hits Night because she leaves Richard alone and he nearly drowns in a flash flood.

Sexual references

Queen of Katwe has some sexual references. For example:

Theo uses Night as a prostitute.
Night becomes pregnant.
Phiona is worried that soon the men will start coming after her.
The landlady tells Harriet to find a ‘sugar daddy’.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Queen of Katwe shows some use of substances. For example, some scenes show characters drinking and smoking on the streets.

Nudity and sexual activity

Nothing of concern

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in Queen of Katwe: Coca-Cola.

Coarse language

Queen of Katwe has some coarse language and name-calling. For example, the children call Phiona a pig.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Queen of Katwe is an uplifting, true story of a young girl from the slums of Uganda who finds her way out by being a champion chess player. Her coach, Robert, is also an inspirational character who gives up his engineering career to help underprivileged children.

This is a delightful story, but the movie presents the reality of life in the slums in an intense way. Therefore, we don’t recommend this movie for children under 8 years, and we do recommend parental guidance for children aged 8-13 years.

The main messages from this movie are that:

you can achieve your goals if you keep trying
we should all help people in need.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include perseverance, loyalty, compassion, selflessness and hope. You might also like to talk about the way that people treat the children from the slums, and whether this happens in Australia.