“We started looking in July 2014,” she recounted. Nair said, was finding an actress to play Phiona. He added, “Being in Uganda, in the church in Katwe, in the slum that the real Phiona Matesi emerged from, makes you feel the challenges they faced and the uniqueness of who they are.”īut the most difficult part of making the film, Ms. “It’s a unique challenge to have the guy you are playing on set every day,” Mr. Katende in similar attire, quietly watching a setup for a chess scene. Oyelowo would speak out about the lack of diversity in academy membership.)ĭressed in a brightly patterned shirt, he pointed out Mr. (Some months later, as controversy raged over the failure of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to nominate black actors for its 2016 awards, Mr. The lens through which black people are viewed, Africa is viewed, female directors are viewed - these are hot-button subjects for me.” It all pointed to a sea change that I’m interested in. “Normally this kind of film would be a passion project, and you would be attached and waiting to see if it would happen,” Mr. I hadn’t received anything this challenging since ‘12 Years a Slave.’” An appealing element, she added, was that “there are no white saviors in this story, at least as it is told here.” “Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would play a mother of five children at my age. Nyong’o said the decision to play Harriet took “several seconds.” “An African woman in this kind of situation? I live for this stuff!” she said. Nyong’o said over breakfast at her hotel. “I learned I’d rather be a participant when I acted in one of the films the students made,” Ms. Nair’s production company in New York, later working in an administrative position at Maisha. She started her film career with an internship at Ms. Nair’s first thought for the role of Harriet. Nyong’o, who shot to fame when she won an Oscar in 2014 for her role in Steve McQueen’s “ 12 Years a Slave,” was Ms. “It’s bizarre to think that a modern tale of Africa without animals hasn’t really been made before,” Ms.
QUEEN OF KATWE ON NETFLIX MOVIE
Nair, the Indian-born director of “ Salaam Bombay!” and “Monsoon Wedding,” reflected on what is a landmark film for the studio - a movie set in Africa about Africans, featuring only black actors. But Madina Nalwanga, who plays the young heroine, and much of the cast were nonactors from Katwe, a sprawling slum in Kampala where the story - of Phiona Mutesi, a street child whose life was irrevocably changed when she learned to play chess - is set. Set in Uganda, the film has two big stars - Ms. It was Day 32 of a 54-day shoot in South Africa and Uganda for Disney’s “ Queen of Katwe,” opening on Sept. “If you stop, I’m going to send you home to your mummy.” The actress Lupita Nyong’o, dressed in a bright yellow robe, clutched a small child at her side, as the director Mira Nair yelled directions at officials walking up and down the aisles. At each one sat two tense-looking children, a chessboard between them, with spectators clustered in stands on either side of the hall. ATTERIGEVILLE, South Africa - On a sunny winter day in May 2015 in this run-down suburb, a 45-minute drive from the shiny office buildings and shopping centers of central Johannesburg, 30 tables were symmetrically arrayed in a large, shabby hall.
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